Do you think IOC should change the rules of what country an athlete represents?
IMO athletes should only represent the country of their nationality, no matter where they live, born, or what their citizenship is.
Example: A Japanese should only represent Japan, even if he is born and residing is USA.
There is a difference between nationality and citizenship.
- call me AlLv 76 years agoFavorite Answer
What country would Tiger Woods represent? What country would the descendants of slaves represent, given nations weren't clearly defined when their ancestors were brought over in chains?
@James, why would white Americans compete under the US flag? Wouldn't it be Irish or German or Swedish? Only Native Americans would compete under the US flag.
- CAMEANLv 66 years ago
Unfortunately, a rule like this would be extremely unfair.
A) Not all athletes can compete for their country. Google Viktor Ahn who was basically ousted from South Korea's speedskating federation altogether because of a disagreement.
B) The training opportunities are not equal. Someone in Zimbabwe has virtually no access to figure skating training strong enough to win an Olympic medal. Someone in Russia, Canada or the United States has access to the best coaches in the world. You can't help what country you are born in.
Perhaps the most fair settlement to this would be a rule demanding you be a citizen of a country for X amount of years before being able to compete for that country.
- James MLv 66 years ago
Sorry, but I strongly disagree with you. Why do you believe that an Olympian born in the USA but has Japanese heritage can't compete under the US flag?
Also, you aren't using the word nationality correctly. Nationality means the country where you were born or have citizenship in. This means your whole argument is contradictory. A Japanese born in the US has to compete for their national background which is American, but then you say they have compete for Japan. You should be using the word ethnicity instead.
If you are trying to use the word ethnicity then what I'm getting from your argument is that only White Americans can compete under the US flag.
Ok. That doesn't change anything. So nationality means where you were born in and you want people to compete under their nationality. But for your example, you said a Japanese person born in the US has to compete for Japan. Why? Didn't you just say a person has to compete from their nationality. That Japanese-American was born in the US, so why wouldn't they have the right to compete for the US? See the contradiction.
- 6 years ago
No. If a person is a citizen of that country they should be able to represent. But they should limit persons who move and try to get citizenship just to get on a different Olympic team because they couldn't get on thier first countries team, usually due to inferior talent.