Just eight years Lopez Lomong didn’t even have a country to call his own. Now, just 13 months after becoming a U.S. citizen Lomong won a vote of team captains to earn the honor of leading America’s Olympic competitors into the 90,000 seat Bird’s Nest Stadium.
Lomong’s story is an inspiring one. The 1500-meter track star’s feet literally saved his life. At the age of 6 Lomong was separated from his parents in his home country of Sudan by Sudanese rebels who were “recruiting” children to fight in their army. Lomong was taken at gun point to a camp, where he managed to escape with the help of friends, fleeing on foot to a refugee camp in Kenya. In 2001he was relocated to the United States as part of a program to relocate lost children from war-torn Sudan.
While the story is an inspiring one the trend of athletes participating in the Olympics for countries other then the ones that they were born in has become an increasing trend. In fact, all three American participants in the 1500-meter event are naturalized citizens. Lomong, Bernard Lagat and Leo Manzano were all born in countries other then America. Lagat was born in Kenya, and Manzano was born in Mexico.
The trend has not only sent athletes to the United States , but is sending American athletes to other countries seeking the opportunity to play for Olympic Gold. Becky Hammon, an American basketball player and WNBA star announced that she would play for Russia in this coming Olympics despite having no ancestral link to the country.
I understatnd that Lomong was selected by his fellow Olympians to represent the United States as its flag bearer, but shouldn’t this honor only be relegated to those who were born in this country? While I have no objection to anyone who wants to come to this country and participate in our national sports, it seems odd that one who is not born here should be given such a distinguished honor, no matter how compelling his story is.
If the trend of letting anyone even, those without ancestral ties to a country, play for that country in the Olympics continues what is to stop any athlete who feels they have a better chance of making another countries Olympic squad leave their own country and try and gain citizenship in that country solely in the quest for Olympic glory.
The Olympics are supposed to be individuals representing their country. It is not supposed to be soley about individual glory. That is why each country bears a flag, why each uniform is marked with the representation of that country.This trend is turning an event which is supposed to represent national and world unity into an event where an individual like Hammon can literally be “rented” by another country merely to satisfy here own personal goals.
What separates someone like Lomong from someone like Hammon is that Lomong came here for reasons well outside of his own personal need for Olympic glory. Lomong came here to save his life, to have a chance to make something out of his life and America is giving him that chance. Hammon has been given everything she could ask for from this country, but because she felt spurned by the US Olympic team (and she may well have been) she jumps ship to pursue an individual goal. Not, exactly what the Olympics are supposed to be about Becky.