South Korea is far from being the first country to naturalize foreign born athletes to bolster their Olympic teams:
From left, Eric Regan, Matt Dalton, Anna Frolina and Alexander Starodubets
Naturalized citizens will represent Korea at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games.
Two Canadian-born ice hockey players, Matt Dalton and Eric Regan, and two Russian-born biathletes, Alexander Starodubets and Anna Frolina, have acquired Korean citizenship, the Justice Ministry said on Thursday.
The Korean nationality law allows people with special talents in specific areas such as science, culture and sports to be fast-tracked to citizenship.
Dalton, 30, and Regan, 28, who play for Korean ice hockey club Anyang Halla, previously made names for themselves playing in Europe. Their addition to the team means there are now six naturalized players on the national ice hockey squad.
Starodubets and Frolina will be the first naturalized Koreans to represent the country in the biathlon. Starodubets, who was a member of the Russian junior national team, chose to represent Korea because it would give him more opportunities to compete. [Chosun Ilbo]
If Victor Ahn is “Russian”, then the above athletes are Korean.
Andy
8 years ago
Changing your citizenship to play for a different country doesn’t sound very patriotic. 😛 😛 😛
Andy
8 years ago
It would be funny if two athletes were competing against each other, were each from the others original country. Could be a dilemna. Who would Korea actually root for? The Russian Korean, or the Korean Russian? lol
ChickenHead
8 years ago
There should be a “natural born citizen” requirement…
…otherwise the “international competition” aspect becomes pretty meaningless and it just becomes which countries can bribe athletes to join their teams.
…like big beefy trannies on the East German women’s swim team.
…but maybe in today’s global corporate village, it is about which country can assemble the best team rather than which country has the most characteristics and experience to have the best team.
The next Jamaican bobsled team will be composed of Nordic “Jamaicans” and all the “Filipinos” on the basketball team will be from Harlem.
Is there anybody with an IQ over 90 that even cares about the Olympics?
setnaffa
8 years ago
When the Soviet Bloc used what amounted to professional athletes and still had trouble competing with the Free World, I had some respect for the IOC. When they started allowing the NBA to compete, I just developed contempt for the whole shooting match.
I’m sure there were some events in which they didn’t do so well, but the Soviet national ice hockey team won nearly every world championship and Olympic tournament between 1954 and 1991.
Will they have to do their Military Service Time?
And if so, will they be on TV as they get yelled at and trained?
guitard
8 years ago
@ MTB Rider
If a south Korean male athlete wins an Olympic medal (or gold medal at the Asian Games), he only has to complete basic training (four weeks) and then gets discharged.
I remember the South Korean short track ice skating fiasco. Apolo Ohno vs. 3 Koreans, and one of the Korean skaters would have been able to skip out on his Army Training if they had won. Too bad his own team mate wanted to jump from 3rd to 2nd. Ohno got 2nd place, and moved on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzyt0e_fJII
guitard
8 years ago
Back in 2002 there were huge demonstrations taking place at bases in 2ID (Camp Red Cloud in particular) because of the two middle school girls who were killed in the track vehicle accident. Some of the demonstrators were wearing these big cartoonish heads made out of (what looked like) paper mache. Most of them were George Bush heads – but there were also a few Apollo Ohno heads. Coincidentally, the 2ID officer who met with the families of the two girls was a Major also surnamed Ohno. He met them several times a week for a couple of months after the accident. His mother wasn’t of Japanese heritage and he looked more like a Hawaiian or Filipino. In spite of the dissident groups trying really hard to get the families to participate in the spectacle, they wouldn’t do it. I believe this was because of Major Ohno’s regular interaction with them.
If Victor Ahn is “Russian”, then the above athletes are Korean.
Changing your citizenship to play for a different country doesn’t sound very patriotic. 😛 😛 😛
It would be funny if two athletes were competing against each other, were each from the others original country. Could be a dilemna. Who would Korea actually root for? The Russian Korean, or the Korean Russian? lol
There should be a “natural born citizen” requirement…
…otherwise the “international competition” aspect becomes pretty meaningless and it just becomes which countries can bribe athletes to join their teams.
…like big beefy trannies on the East German women’s swim team.
…but maybe in today’s global corporate village, it is about which country can assemble the best team rather than which country has the most characteristics and experience to have the best team.
The next Jamaican bobsled team will be composed of Nordic “Jamaicans” and all the “Filipinos” on the basketball team will be from Harlem.
Is there anybody with an IQ over 90 that even cares about the Olympics?
When the Soviet Bloc used what amounted to professional athletes and still had trouble competing with the Free World, I had some respect for the IOC. When they started allowing the NBA to compete, I just developed contempt for the whole shooting match.
@setnaffa
I’m sure there were some events in which they didn’t do so well, but the Soviet national ice hockey team won nearly every world championship and Olympic tournament between 1954 and 1991.
Will they have to do their Military Service Time?
And if so, will they be on TV as they get yelled at and trained?
@ MTB Rider
If a south Korean male athlete wins an Olympic medal (or gold medal at the Asian Games), he only has to complete basic training (four weeks) and then gets discharged.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_South_Korea
I remember the South Korean short track ice skating fiasco. Apolo Ohno vs. 3 Koreans, and one of the Korean skaters would have been able to skip out on his Army Training if they had won. Too bad his own team mate wanted to jump from 3rd to 2nd. Ohno got 2nd place, and moved on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzyt0e_fJII
Back in 2002 there were huge demonstrations taking place at bases in 2ID (Camp Red Cloud in particular) because of the two middle school girls who were killed in the track vehicle accident. Some of the demonstrators were wearing these big cartoonish heads made out of (what looked like) paper mache. Most of them were George Bush heads – but there were also a few Apollo Ohno heads. Coincidentally, the 2ID officer who met with the families of the two girls was a Major also surnamed Ohno. He met them several times a week for a couple of months after the accident. His mother wasn’t of Japanese heritage and he looked more like a Hawaiian or Filipino. In spite of the dissident groups trying really hard to get the families to participate in the spectacle, they wouldn’t do it. I believe this was because of Major Ohno’s regular interaction with them.