[custom_adv] Why some Olympians can compete for countries they are not from? US, Russia, and Canada are the countries with the most nationals competing for other countries, while South Korea, Canada, and Germany have the most non-native athletes competing for them. [custom_adv] Obviously, citizenship laws differ by country. Fenlator-Victorian was able to compete for Jamaica because her father is Jamaican.On the other hand, Gary and Angelica di Silvestri, a married couple, essentially bought citizenship with the tiny Caribbean country of Dominica and ended up competing in the Sochi Olympics as part of the Dominica ski team, per Deadspin. [custom_adv] For many athletes, changing their national allegiances is the only way to keep their Olympic dreams alive, especially if their home country is stacked with talent in their particular sport. Such is the case with Carlijn Schoutens, a speed skater for Team USA who grew up in the Netherlands, a speed-skating powerhouse, per Yahoo Sports. [custom_adv] But others have more personal reasons. Hodgetts quotes Akuoma Omeoga, an American-born athlete competing on Nigeria's women's bobsled team, as saying: "Being Nigerian was always something that was definitely prominent in my childhood, as it is as much as in adulthood. That was the first culture that I've ever known." Add your description here. [custom_adv] Five of the nine boxers on Mexico’s national team are from the U.S., as are a wrestler, a women’s basketball player and two members of last summer’s Pan American Games water polo team. “My whole family’s proud. What’s wrong with being proud about competing for Mexico?” said Lanaro, who has cleared 19 feet this year and is Mexico’s best hope for a track and field medal in Beijing. “I don’t see anything wrong with it.” [custom_adv] Others are critical, however, with those in the U.S. arguing that American athletes who compete for Mexico are turning their back on the country that trained them in exchange for an easier path to the Olympics. And in Mexico, some coaches and athletes have grown tired of “foreigners” taking opportunities away from locals. [custom_adv] [custom_adv] “In my opinion, yes, it’s controversial, a little unethical,” said German Silva, a two-time Olympian and now a top Mexican distance-running coach.But it is legal. In fact, top athletes crossing borders to enhance their Olympic prospects are part of a well-established pattern that involves many nations and events. Four years ago at Athens, Americans of Greek descent took the field for the host nation’s baseball team, a Chinese-born table tennis player competed for the United States and a Jamaican woman sprinted for Slovenia. [custom_adv] The U.S. has also benefited from foreign-born athletes changing allegiances: 1,500-meter runner Bernard Lagat and marathoner Khalid Khannouchi were born in Africa, yet now hold U.S. records. And national gymnastics champions Nastia Liukin and Alexander Artemev are from the former Soviet Union. [custom_adv] The U.S. rules are stricter than most, though, requiring that Olympians hold American citizenship. Mexico, reflecting the practice of many nations, welcomes athletes who may have been born or reared elsewhere but are of Mexican descent.That has opened the door for Lanaro and fellow vaulter Robison Pratt, who was born in Saudi Arabia to a family with ties to Mexico dating to before the Mexican Revolution.
