As early as January this year we reported in 《Former world record holders switch to Turkey, targeting the Los Angeles Olympics》that several of the world’s top track and field athletes, including former women’s marathon world record holder, Kenyan Brigid Kosgei (Brigid Kosgei), had applied to change nationality and join Turkey in preparation for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Recently, the nationality-change applications were finally decided: World Athletics' Nationality Review Panel（Nationality Review Panel）formally rejected the applications of Kosgei and 10 other athletes to transfer their allegiance to Turkey. The panel said that this government-led 'coordinated recruitment strategy' seriously undermines the integrity and fairness of international athletics.
World Athletics disclosed in its ruling that the nationality transfers of these 11 athletes were not natural migrations driven by personal choice, but a systematic strategy led by the Turkish government. a club wholly owned and funded by the Turkish government.
By offering extremely generous commercial contracts to entice high-level overseas athletes to change nationality. The ultimate aim was to assemble a "naturalized squad" capable, on paper, of contesting for gold and silver in athletics at the Los Angeles Olympics — a team which would be very strong on paper.
This mercenary-style relationship would clearly be consideredto directly undermine World Athletics' core principles on eligibility to compete, namelyensuring a "genuine connection" exists between the athlete and the country they represent
However, althoughthe decision by World Athletics' Eligibility Review Panel cut off theseathletes' paths to represent Turkey at World Championships or the Olympics, but similarDiamond League, the World Athletics Continental Tour, etc.professional one-day meetings, or such asthe six World Marathon Majors like Boston, London, and Chicago, and various city marathons, these athletes can still compete as Turkish athletes.其实，世界田径赛场从来不缺乏归化运动员，土耳其马拉松国家纪录就是从肯尼亚归化而来的 坎·基根·兹比伦（Kaan Kigen Özbilen）创造的。康纳·曼茨（Conner Mantz）之前，美国马拉松的国家纪录也是由来自摩洛哥的运动员哈利德·哈诺奇（Khalid Khannouchi）跑出的。Across Asian marathon records, the full marathon and half marathon marks are dominated by Bahrain, and their athletes mostly come from East or North Africa—likeWinfred Yavi who also won Olympic gold and set an Olympic record.It's not that Bahrain received special treatment; the main point is that naturalizations needed to happen early. 2018 was a watershed year for naturalized athletes, and most athletes likeWinfred Yavi completed the process mostly before 2018. It was the proliferation of such naturalizations prior to the Rio Olympics that ultimately convinced World Athletics to make a firm decision,to introduce extremely strict transfer-of-allegiance rules and establish a "three-year waiting period", and set up a dedicatednationality-review committee. Unlike Bahrain, which typically brings athletes to the country in their youth for long-term development,establishing a certain degree of 'nominal but procedurally proper' ties,the Turks' approach is more direct, or put differently,this kind of 'talent recruitment'comes off as much crasser.A large-scale, coordinated operation — among the 11 athletes who applied to transfer allegiance, many had never actually lived in Turkey; they simply signed lucrative contracts and planned to don the Turkish vest at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics — naturally became a primary target for World Athletics.Turkey's scheme failed; for other countries hoping to buy a national team or even Olympic medals with cold, hard cash, this can be seen as a warning shot.Similar incidents have occurred in Chinese basketball and football — could the same thing happen one day in athletics?
Text:David / Editor:David
Image:Trail Running Big Bang / Visual: Max
