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Originally Posted by Edward64
I'm split on Eileen Gu. I'm glad she was able to fulfil her childhood dream.
On one hand, it doesn't sit well with me that a US born Asian American has decided to represent China (if she gave up her citizenship, that would be a different matter). On the other hand, there are examples of other athletes, born in one country but representing another (either as naturalized or dual citizen).
I'm sure the US has benefited from such arrangements also. The question in my mind is ... did Eileen Gu give up her US Citizenship to represent China? China does not recognize dual citizenships. Apparently in a news conference, she hedged and did not answer. And the Olympics has long stopped being just for amateurs and guns for hire are not unusual.
Don't know. I think I lean towards being okay. Won't root for her but happy for her (we can only hope to be that talented), sad for the US, let it play out in future sponsorships, endorsements, court of public opinion etc.
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This happens seemingly all the time for the Olympics. If you watch the parade of nations, a lot of the smaller countries that only have a couple of athletes - the announcers will talk about one of them and often they're from larger countries but compete for a smaller country where their parents are from or where they have dual citizenship with. I mean, cynically, it's probably something like "athlete X is in the top 20 in the world but not top 2 in the US/Russia/Germany/whatever so they can't make that local team in the sport but if they compete for another country, they can easily qualify for the Olympics". That seems fine to me, especially if it's a country where their parents are from. We want the best people in sports at the Olympics and they probably shouldn't miss out due to limits from top-heavy teams.
That doesn't mean there isn't some manipulation like the whole Elizabeth Swaney thing, but, generally, it seems fine.
Elizabeth Swaney - Wikipedia
SI