He can keep the records if the US can claim his silver. If not, then no records. You can't have it both ways.
He can keep the records if the US can claim his silver. If not, then no records. You can't have it both ways.
If he was American and running under the Kenyan flag, we should strip him of his citizenship for being a traitor.
Although I can see no reason why he should not be given the American records (if he did become a citizen last year), it would certainly be very anti-climactic.
You're a moron. Lots of athletes compete for other countries during he Olympics. Look at like virtually all of the Greek Baseball team at the past Olympics!!!
damn, trackehad making sense!!
trackhead wrote:
On what spot on the earth you come out of the vagina
you said a dirty word, though.
MAYEROFF wrote:
What I find most digusting about the situation was the deception involved.
Lagat KNEW he was a US Citizen at the time of the Weltklasse and the Olympics.
Lagat KNEW that he would most likely be kicked out of the Olympics if he told the Kenyan Officials about his taking the oath of US Citizenship.
When I heard about Lagat becoming a US Citizen, I orginally congratulated him and welcomed him to my country.
Now, I am disgusted by the apparent lack of honesty.
I agree and I think it's perfectly appropriate (in fact, imperative) to refuse to reward such deception with national records. If a new rule has to be adopted by USATF to deal expressly with such unprecedented dishonesty it is not as though the person creating the situation is in a position to complain of the unfairness.
Also, anyone capable of the moral rationalization to justify such deception is certainly capable of engaging in the same type of rationalization to justify using drugs (to keep up with everyone else, etc).
So a month ago everyone was up in arms over the unfair tactics used by Qatar et. al to recruit Kenyan defectors and went on to applaud the IAAFs' nationality rule changes, but as soon as the good ole' U.S. of A gets their own Kenyan no one has a problem with the switch in allegiances (under unusual and secretive circumstances no less) and is looking at claiming historical medals and records? Give me break.
Nah Felix Sanchez can't set a record in the hurdles because Kevin Young is too good. Just wont happen.
Hypocrites wrote:
So a month ago everyone was up in arms over the unfair tactics used by Qatar et. al to recruit Kenyan defectors and went on to applaud the IAAFs' nationality rule changes, but as soon as the good ole' U.S. of A gets their own Kenyan no one has a problem with the switch in allegiances (under unusual and secretive circumstances no less) and is looking at claiming historical medals and records? Give me break.
Well, Kenyan Qataris don't know Arabic, they aren't Muslim, they've never been to the country, don't know the flag and will probably never go there. Lagat has lived in America for a decade, received his college education here and will probably live out his days here. Big difference. Also, there's no evidence he was recruited here.
It come down to ONE thing. Lagat choose not to run for the United States last year even though he knew was already a US citizen. He ran under the Kenyan flag all year so he should not receive these records.
He could have ran for the US but he DIDNT so why should we award someone records when they were dishonest about what country they were running for?
He didn't run under the US flag, so I'd say no.
Let him get the records this year when everyone knows he's an American.
could he have run under the us flag? isnt there some kind of time period he would have to sit out in order to compete internationally for his new country? he probably ran for kenya so that he could compete in the olympics. i would have done the same if i was him.
welcome to The United States Bernard!
[quote]trackhead wrote:
In fact, the term "American" to the rest of the world more or less refers to someone from the Americas, ie from somewhere between Barrow, AK and Tierra del Fuego.
Off topic question-Are Icelanders, Bermudians and Greenlanders 'Mericas
also?
]
Are Icelanders,Greenlanders and Burmudians 'Mericans?
Comes down to one thing wrote:
It come down to ONE thing. Lagat choose not to run for the United States last year even though he knew was already a US citizen. He ran under the Kenyan flag all year so he should not receive these records.
He could have ran for the US but he DIDNT so why should we award someone records when they were dishonest about what country they were running for?
From what we're hearing, that's completely wrong. He couldn't have run for the US because of this waiting period thing. So either he tries to hide it and runs for Kenya, or he doesn't run in the Olympics at all.
Lagat...love to watch him run, love to watch him compete. He's what, 30 years old now? late 20s? As far as I'm concerned he spent his whole life in Kenya...I think it's pretty shitty that he can come to the US and start breaking records as an "American". I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who sees something wrong with this. I mean...what if Jeremy Wariner, Maurice Green, Shawn Crawford, and other elite American sprinters decided to up and move to Bolivia and start obliterating that country's records because they became citizens of Bolivia...I mean seriously, come on.
Jeff Atkinson is sure to be pissed about this.
The Truth wrote:
Lagat...love to watch him run, love to watch him compete. He's what, 30 years old now? late 20s? As far as I'm concerned he spent his whole life in Kenya...I think it's pretty shitty that he can come to the US and start breaking records as an "American". I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who sees something wrong with this. I mean...what if Jeremy Wariner, Maurice Green, Shawn Crawford, and other elite American sprinters decided to up and move to Bolivia and start obliterating that country's records because they became citizens of Bolivia...I mean seriously, come on.
okay, let's try to have an objective discussion here. where would you draw the line? (this is a serious question). should someone like Meb, who has done the vast majority of his running in the U.S. but who (as I understand things) came to the U.S. in high school count?
it appears that you are opposed to Lagat running for the U.S. is that because he has already run for Kenya, or because he came to the U.S. too late in life (in his case, during college)?
how do you feel about Felix Sanchez? My understanding is that he grew up in the U.S., but changed his citizenship to the Dominican Republic partly out of a desire to have an easier road to the Olympics/World Champs. Should he be allowed to break records in the Dominican Republic?
In short, who qualifies to break a national record in your book? Must the individual be native-born? A certain requirement of years lived in the country? Parents who have a connection to the country? Grandparents? A requirement that you never compete for, or try to compete for, another country's national team? A requirement that you have never competed in any running event in another country prior to becoming a citizen in the new country?
p.s. Felix Sanchez was born in New York and grew up in SoCal.
Sanchez has dual citizenship, as wejo noted.
Therefore he is a United States citizen. So if we recognize Lagat's records, Sanchez should be make our all-time lists.
But he doesn't because he represents another country. It's plain and simple.
wejo, you're 100% correct.