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Written by Peter Morrison
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Monday, 23 June 2008 12:24 |
 Unsurprisingly, Becky Hammon, a ten year WNBA veteran and four time All Star, will be playing in the Beijing Olympics. But what is surprising is the South Dakota native, often described as the typical “All American Girl,†will be suiting up for Russia and not the USA.
Hammons decision has gained great attention and created a big controversy with US National Coach recently calling her “a traitor.†However, Hammon counters that she was never given a chance to play for the American team. Last year when USA Basketball released a list of 23 candidates for the team, Hammon, last season’s WNBA MVP runner-up, was not named on it. Though the list was later added with the list expanded to 30, she believes this was purely a token invitation.
Instead she was given Russian citizenship while also signing a contract with Russian club CSKA Moscow which will pay her over $2 million over the next four years. And while some have called her a ‘traitor,’ many others love the business move. In addition to the big club contract, Hammon will earn $150,000 if Russia wins silver and $250,000 for a gold medal.
Hammon’s former coach with the New York Liberty, Richie Adubato, is one who endorses the move saying, “there is a big difference financially between what players make there compared to what they earn in the WNBA. … If Becky was my daughter, I would tell her to play for Russia. She wasn't going to make Team USA. It's hard to argue with her decision."Of course, athletes competing for a country other than that of there birth is not a new phenomenon. Several Cold War era athletes have represented North American nations after defecting. Martina Navratilova is one famous tennis star to gain American citizenship, while ice hockey players such as Petr Nedved and the Peter Stastny have represented Canada.
And though it is not often publicized in America, soccer players from major powers like Brazil or Argentina will often elect to play for another country once it is clear they will not make the squad in their home nation. In the past World Cup; Portugal, Spain, and Japan all used players born in Brazil, while Mexico and World Champion Italy used players born in Argentina.
Eligibility rules vary from country to country with each nation or region setting their own standards for citizenship. Some places, the European Union for example, makes it very easy to get a passport if either a player’s parents or grandparents were a citizen of an EU country. This option is taken by many soccer players who wish to sign with European Clubs. Many leagues, such as in Spain, put a limit on the number of non-Europeans who can play for each team. Therefore, many Brazilians and Argentineans will try to get a Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese passport, so they do not use up the team’s foreign player limit.
Most of the time when these players earn dual citizenship they will still play for the national team of their birth, but for some teams with exceptionally strong rosters, they will use this second passport as an opportunity to compete in the top competitions such as the Olympics or World Cup. Â
Other rules also allow players to eventually join the national team of a different country after living in a country for a certain amount of years. Such is the case for soccer players like Eduardo da Silva, a Brazilian who now is on the Croatian National Team after playing for Dinamo Zagreb for five years.
In addition to number of years of residence, some nations will add other requirements before citizenship is granted. In the case of Maurice Whitfield, a basketball player from Philadelphia, a language test was mandatory before he was eligible to play for the Czech National Team.
But often times nationality rules can be so loose that some people are eligible to represent 2, 3, or sometimes even four different nations. Such is the case for soccer player Owen Hargreaves of Manchester United. Hargreaves was born and raised in Canada to parents of England and Welsh descent, but moved at a young age to Germany to play for Bayern Munich.
Eligible to represent all four nations, his eventual choice of England raised some eyebrows, as he had never lived in the country. This choice was not well liked by many England fans who did not want a ‘mercenary’ player representing them. For several years, Hargreaves was routinely booed by the English supporters, but in the end, he eventually won the support of many fans after several fantastic performances at that 2006 World Cup.
Hargreaves example shows that for most sports, on field performance is all that matters, and oftentimes all the fans, and more importantly, the sports officials and politicians care about. The national pride that can be gained from a strong performance in major international tournaments outweighs the fact that ‘foreigners’ are permitted in the squad.
And the desire to win has led to situations where countries are willing to simply give away citizenship to star athletes. Hammon was given Russian citizenship after simply signing a contract with a Russian club, without any family ties or ever residing there. The same was the case with Jon Robert Holden, another American who will play for the Russian Men’s Basketball team.
Qatar is another nation infamous for giving away citizenship to star athletes. There are numerous South Americans on the National Soccer Team, Africans in the Track and Field Team, and Bulgarians in the Weightlifting Team. The small Middle East nation with huge oil wealth has major ambitions to hold many of the top world sporting competitions, notably the World Cup and Olympics. However, as a small nation with little international sporting success, it is often overlooked for these events.
Therefore, Qatar has spent billions of dollars on developing athletes in the country, but they have also engaged in practices that have greatly angered the international community. Among these practices is a ‘scholarship program’ aimed at bringing African youths from seven different countries to train at the Aspire Academy, a $1.3 billion, state of the art sports school. The Qataris state that there goals are simply trying to help talented players from desperate poverty, but skeptics see this program as a way to develop their future national teams. Sepp Blatter, head of FIFA, is one person critical of this technique saying, “their establishment of recruitment networks in these seven African countries reveals just what Aspire is all about. Aspire offers a good example of... exploitation.â€
The changing of citizenship is so common today that many people do not even think anything is strange about it. This could be seen by ESPN.com editors during a series on the website called “So You Wanna Be An Olympian.†The series followed an American triathlete named Kathryn Bertie as she went on a quest to achieve her dream of competing in the Olympics. After she failed to make the US Cycling team, ESPN quickly asked her to simply find a different country to represent. And in a few months time Kathryn had been granted citizenship to the Caribbean Island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis.       So are these athletes’ traitors, good businessman, or simply athletes desperate to compete at the top level? Though many people will have different beliefs on this topic, Bertine gives a very interesting opinion from the athletes perspective saying:          I know some readers will consider what I'm trying to do despicable. They will see my quest for citizenship as a way of trying to worm my way into another country. They will chastise me for putting my USAness on the back burner for a shot at Olympic glory. Some will say my attempt to find a country to adopt me is un-American; or worse, Ugly American. Have I no shame? Have I no respect for my country or for the Olympics? Actually, I've got nothing but respect for the Olympics. Look at our world -- our planet is disintegrating, war is raging, politics are corrupting, genocide is erupting, children are obesifying, disease is rampant and cures come with ruinous price tags ... and yet, every couple of years, a bunch of athletes gather around the Olympic campfire and sing "Kumbaya" for two weeks, while kicking each other's happy butts. And for what? The chance to win an olive branch halo and a glorified coaster tied to a piece of ribbon? No. For the chance to be a part of something good. Something worthwhile. Something bigger than ourselves. Something that celebrates the body rather than trying to demolish it. That's what I respect. That is what the Olympics mean to me.
If being an Olympian means being part of something internationally positive, does it really matter what country I represent?
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