As Britain prepares to glory in the success of its Olympic competitors, I've just heard a discussion on the radio about the validity of some of those who are representing us.
Many years ago, it was the norm that athletes representing a country would have been born there or, at least, spent the bulk of their lives there; long term immigrants were acceptable, gaining a specific nationality after a few weeks in the country and then appearing in that country's colours was not. Today things are very different.
Many athletes from Kenya and Ethiopia now appear in the colours of other nations, having appeared for their home country only a short time ago. Similarly, the UK seems to have been operating a programme designed to attract as many foreign athletes as possible and to fast track them into 'Team GB'. It is claimed that some of these, such as the triple jumper Yamilé Aldama who hails from Cuba via Sudan, are genuine immigrants and fully entitled to UK citizenship and, hence, to represent us in international events; others, such as Tiffany Porter, an American who appears to have become British purely to enable her to compete in the Olympics, clearly have little if any loyalty to Britain and should not be representing us.
Sadly, in these days of big-money sport, anything goes. Athletes swap nationality as often as some people change their socks, with only their own glorification in mind. Some, perhaps such as Aldama who is married to a Britain, may well have more right to wear a British vest than others, but it makes cheering on 'Our Guys' much more difficult.
Mo Farah has lived here for most of his life and is a 'True Brit'; I'll cheer him on and prey that he can bring home at least one gold; as far as Tiffany Porter goes, I really couldn't care less what she does and I'll be cheering on the great Aussie hurdler, Sally Pearson. Aldama leaves me in a bit of a quandry as her background is a bit of a mess. Having originally represented Cuba up to 2000, she then married a Scot who subsequently found himself in prison for drug trafficking. Aldama sought British citizenship but was initially rejected; she then looked for another country to represent and chose Sudan, for whom she competed at the 2004 Olympics and 2005 World Championships. In 2010, she was finally granted UK citizenship and has competed for us ever since. It is tempting to believe that the facts she is a world class triple jumper and the London Olympics were on the horizon were a major contibutor to this change of heart by the British authorities, which makes one think that citizenship is not quite the prize that it's cracked up to be. Anyone can gain it if national pride might be enhanced.
It is not just athletics which is tainted by this cross-border trafficking on sportsmen and women. Cricket is a particularly dirty area in this regard, with a raft of South Africans having moved to England and Australia over the years. Tennis has also been subject to this type of traffic, as has Rugby Union and, no doubt, many other sports. I could never get very excited about the exploits of Greg Rusedski or Tony Grieg, Alan Lamb or Lennox Lewis, whose career was really developed in Canada even though he was born here. The worst aspect of this manipulation of nationalities is that it often denies opportunities to home grown talent who simply cannot compete with the already experienced overseas stars; compare the performances of our Premier League and National football teams if you don't believe me..
I have nothing against excellence in sport and will cheer on the best, I just don't think we should try to make jingoistic capital out of buying in that excellence. Ultimately, it is a self-defeating strategy.
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