Two American Figure Skaters Could Receive ROK Citizenship to Compete in 2018 Olympics

I wonder if these two American figure skaters would be given dual citizenship or will they have to renounce their US citizenship?:

S.Korea May Grant Citizenship to Foreign Athletes Ahead of Pyeongchang Olympics

South Korea will likely grant citizenship to four foreign athletes in preparation of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

The Korean Sport and Olympic Committee met Wednesday to discuss the issue at the Korean National Training Center in northeastern Seoul.

The four include two American figure skaters, Alexander Gamelin and Themistocles Leftheris, and two Russian biathletes.

The two American figure skaters paired with South Korean partners and have been competing in ISU championships as South Korean teams since June of last year.  [KBS World Radio]

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guitard
guitard
7 years ago

“I wonder if these two American figure skaters would be given dual citizenship or will they have to renounce their US citizenship?”

South Korea (and the US for that matter) are countries that allow dual citizenship.

Tyson
Tyson
Reply to  guitard
7 years ago

They would all be duals where their countries allow it. But does Russia allow duals? Probably not because that Korean speed skater in the last Olympic, gave up his Korean citizenship for the Russian citizenship.

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
7 years ago

Kinda ruins the spirit of the Olympics when a country can scout athletes from other contries, rebrand them, and brag how their nation produces medal-winners.

Sure, the Olympics are one big scam… but now they aren’t even trying to hide it.

Andy
Andy
Reply to  ChickenHead
7 years ago

Free Agents in the Olympics! Next, countries will be able to openly trade their Olympic athletes or even have a draft, lol.

Smokes
Smokes
Reply to  ChickenHead
7 years ago

How so? The spirit of the Olympics just like all sports is to make money from entertaining. The Olympics haven’t been about competition since the ancient ones. “Athlete” is a fancy title for “entertainer” and any one who claims they’d do it for free because they “love the game” is full O 5h1t.

3 Tom eyeroll smiles for making me yet again have to address the farce of sports.
🙄 🙄 🙄

Flyingsword
Flyingsword
7 years ago

Isn’t the test to become a Korean kinda of difficult, first step is Know Hangul?

guitard
guitard
Reply to  Flyingsword
7 years ago

Yes, there is the following requirement for naturalization: “Must have basic knowledge befitting a South Korean national, such as an understanding of the Korean language, customs, and culture.”

However, a revised nationality law passed in 2010 grants a limited number of persons dual citizenship, to include (among several categories) – foreigners with exceptional talent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Korean_nationality_law

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
7 years ago

“However, a revised nationality law passed in 2010 grants a limited number of persons dual citizenship, to include (among several categories) – foreigners with exceptional talent.”

I was thinking of applying for Korean citizenship under this category but was advised that my application might not be accepted…

…being my exceptional talent is really only suitable for a more intimate environment.

setnaffa
setnaffa
Reply to  ChickenHead
7 years ago

Drinking beer and ad-hoc limericks? Mind you, that puts you ahead of most of my colleagues when I was working in Seoul…

Smokes
Smokes
Reply to  Smokes
7 years ago

Yeah the guy (or gal, lookin at you liz) who thumb’s-down’ed (double apostrophized <-((woah spellcheck ok'ed that)) hyphenated word ooooh) my comment. You know what you can do with that thumb. ❓ It involves you in a closet with some icy hot and no pants going up the exit ramp if you're having a hard time with ideas. 👿

Smokes
Smokes
Reply to  guitard
7 years ago

Of course it does, this way it panders to the old fossils who cry about the preservation of culture all while leaving the door open to poach filthy waegugin whenever the RoK feel the homegrown can’t get the job done to bring attention to the RoK in the area of __insert_whiney_complaint_here___. :hmm:

Smokes
Smokes
Reply to  ChickenHead
7 years ago

Wanting to be helpful I sent your citizenship application to numerous countries just so we can field test it. Within an hour the embassies of the Phillipines, Thailand, and Brazil all answered back with local versions of “zomg! yesssss! pls cum!” Also something call the “Official Transient Association of Kathoeys United” said they’d put you in a leadership position asap! 😳

By the way, breaking out of the joke, this actually auto-completed in GogGley: “countries with ladyboys” and no not from the local cache ya wiseguy. So yeah there’s that. 😯

ChickenHead
ChickenHead
7 years ago

King of the Ladyboys…

…hmmm…

It would never get old looking at naked pre-ops and yelling “Off with their heads!”

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