The sense of identity of some Olympians is not as cut and dried as would appear to be, and sometimes the flag on the TV screen doesn’t tell you the whole story about a given athlete.
Just a month ago this paper highlighted the ‘new Irish’ who competed under the tricolour at the Olympics last month – with rower Sanita Puspure from Latvia and Polish canoeist Andrej Jezierski distinguishing themselves in London in particular.
But it is a pattern that’s repeated throughout the world. For instance, the national basketball team of Nigeria that participated in the London Games included nine players born in the US, although all of them affirmed being completely identified with their African origins. Only Olumide Oyedeji, Tony Skinn and Ejike Ugboaja were born in Nigeria.
“Every time someone queries our country of origin, I say it’s a bad question,” said New York-born forward Ike Diogu. “Everyone’s parents are Nigerian, almost all of us speak more than one language, we eat food from Nigeria and we are Nigerians.”
However, Nigeria is not the most striking case of athletes born in one country yet competing for another. As far as the most recent Games, that accolade might go to Israel: 18 of the 37 Israeli athletes who competed in London were born beyond Israel’s borders.
Competing under the Israeli flag were six athletes born in Russia, five Ukrainians, two Americans and one each from Argentina, Ethiopia, Georgia, Uruguay and Uzbekistan.
Tennis player Andy Ram contended his third Olympics in London after participating in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008. Born in Montevideo in Uruguay 32 years ago, Ram has made his career as an Israeli tennis player.
A mixed-doubles winner at Wimbledon in 2006, Ram teamed at the Olympics with fellow naturalised Israeli Jonathan Erlich (who is originally from Argentina) since the Athens Games in 2004.
So far they have failed to make headway at the Olympics, but there is one instance of a naturalised Israeli athlete who finished in the medals – when kayaker Michael Kolganov, born in the Soviet Union, took bronze in the K1 500m in Sydney in 2000.
And then there is the curious case of Benjamin Hockin. Competing under the British flag at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, four years later Hockin was the flagbearer for Paraguay – the homeland of his mother – in London. But there’s yet another nationality in the mix, as Hockin was actually born in Colombia, where his English father was working at the time.
After his participation in Beijing 2008, where he contested the 4x100 freestyle final for Great Britain, Hockin chose to renaturalise as a Paraguayan athlete – a decision that resulted in a year of suspension from all competitive games.
“That period was quite sad but it motivated me to continue training hard,” he said, “and luckily I was ready for the Shanghai World Tournament [in July 2011] where I made the semi-final in the 50m butterfly for the first time in my career.”
Though the podium eluded him in London, the swimmer said he is “very proud to represent Paraguay” and that carrying the flag “meant a lot to me”.
But if there is one naturalised athlete who shone brighter than all others in London 2012, it has to be Mo Farah. The runner – who was born in Somalia and has family in Somaliland – won Britain’s first-ever gold medal in the 10,000 metres, then took gold in the 5,000 metres just days later. His historic achievement is not only an achievement for his struggling homeland, but has been championed throughout the UK as the ‘best of British’ – surely a triumph for integration in his adopted home.
