Military battles and wars aside, success in international athletic competitions is often viewed as increasing pride in one’s nation. It’s all for the sake of the nation, at least as viewed by their political leaders: joining people together across political, economic, class divides; defining a national identity different from their history; creating heroes for the populace to look up to. Look at the Argentina celebrating their World Cup victory.
Nationalism and the Olympics
The Olympic Games are the epitome of international athletics being connected to national pride, where even the smallest nations can win medals, where medalled athletes return are feted with parades and the keys to the city, even when the country had no involvement in the triumph of their athletes. Though supposedly non-political, countries find way to make them political: Hitler intending the 1936 Berlin Olympics to show the superiority of Aryans (Jesse Owens created a different narrative); the Soviet Union and East Bloc communist countries intending to prove the superiority of their society through means such as performance-enhancing drugs; China suppressing free speech in both the 2008 Summer and 2022 Winter Beijing Olympics. Whatever it takes to put the nation in a positive light.
Whatever It Takes To Compete
The nationalism is in stark contrast to the athletes’ views: anything to compete, baby. Successful athletes are single-minded and often make great sacrifices for their athletic endeavors; competing in the Olympics (and getting an Olympic tattoo) often is the pinnacle of their career. For the so-called Olympic sports – the ones rarely covered/broadcasted outside the Olympics – Olympic success leads to opportunities otherwise not available, especially financial. Winning the decathlon at the 1976 Montreal Olympics made Bruce Jenner a household name.
Changing Citizenship For Fun and Profit
Qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympics is starting in earnest – the games open in six months. The despair of not qualifying is palatable, as it’s a four year cycle and there’s no guarantee that an athlete is even competing at that time. There are backdoors to get that elusive Olympic slot – injuries, qualifying athletes reducing their workload (in particular, swimming and track), merit selections – but the United States qualifying procedures are unforgiving: one poor showing and you’re out.
Increasingly athletes are changing citizenship or acquiring dual citizenship as an end-around to qualify for the Olympics. Aleah Finnegan‘s story is the latest: born and raised in the United States, she finished 23rd in the 2021 US National Gymnastic Championship and subsequently wasn’t called to training camps or pre-Olympic trials. Her solution was to acquire Filipino citizenship through her mother and qualify via Asia, becoming the first female Filipino Olympic gymnast. Mission accomplished!
Many athletes changing citizenships exist:
- Zola Budd became British as she couldn’t compete internationally for South Africa during apartheid;
- Becky Hammon became Russian after not being invited to compete for the United States in womens’ basketball;
- Eileen Gu was born/raised in the US and then acquired Chinese citizenship, speculated for financial support that gives China a top-level freestyle skier;
- Leonard Korir attended college in the United States, subsequently acquired US citizenship and qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics;
- and many others …..
And it’s not for the Olympics: tennis player Elena Rybakina became Kahzak to be sponsored by the national government and the FIFA World Cup has a history of foreign-born participants, including Americans playing for other countries at the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
Should We Even Care?
Corruption and costs aside, it would seem that the fluidity of citizenship makes international competitions moot and and hopefully disappear as they become meaningless. Unfortunately, the advantages to both country and athlete are too much to ignore, so likely they continue (thought it’s been increasingly hard to identify future Olympic hosts).
And non-athletes also play citizenship games: a coworker recently acquired Luxembourg citizenship, which required posthumously acquiring Luxembourg citizenship for her great-grandmother. With extreme wealth comes the possibility of purchasing citizenship in the country of your choice, benefiting both country and individual.
So do I care? Hypocritically, yes, though I do so with a critical eye!
Image Credits
- “olympic rings” by striatic is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
- “just-do-it-blade” by bbaunach is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
- “Alice, me and the Speaker of Hackney Council, Citizenship Ceremony, Hackney Town Hall, Hackney, London, UK.tif” by gruntzooki is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
