Born and Trained Elsewhere, Competing for the U.S.
Righ to Left: Bolota Asmeron, Matt Gonzales, Jorge Torres, Matt Downin, and Chris Graff.
Here is the rundown on the elite foreign-born and -trained athletes who may be
headed to Beijing as part of the U.S. Olympic team:
Probably the most likely to medal is Bernard Lagat, a star middledistance
runner. He won the silver medal for Kenya at the 2004 Olympics in the 1,500
meters. When the U.S. Olympic trials begin in Eugene, Ore., on June 27, Lagan
will be the favorite in the 1,500 meters, and a strong candidate to make the
team in the 5,000 meters.
Bolota Asmerom, who competed for Eritrea at the 2000 Olympics, also has a good
chance to make the U.S. team in the 5,000 meters. His qualification time is the
third best going into the trials.
Lagat and Asmerom, both longtime U.S. residents who went to college here, would
be making their first appearances on the U.S. Olympic team.
Another strong contender for a medal is Phillip Dutton in equestrian eventing.
He won two gold medals competing in 1996 and 2000 for Australia. He took the
Rolex Kentucky competition this April, so he’s in top form. The U.S.
equestrian team will be named July 15, and he’s a good bet to be on it. Once
in Beijing, if he’s a top competitor in the team competition, he could also
vie for an individual medal as well.
Matt Reed was an elite triathlon competitor for New Zealand until 2004. That
year he became what The Times believes is the only athlete who competed in both
the U.S. and New Zealand Olympic trials in the same year. He did not make the
highly competitive Kiwi team and was ruled ineligible for the U.S. team because
he did not hold American citizenship. This year, he captured the second slot on
the Amerk men’s team.
Four of the foreign elite athletes comprise the entire U.S. table tennis team.
Not surprisingly, they all competed at an elite level in China.
The team consists of three women — Jun Gao, Wang Chen and Yao Xi Crystal
Huang – and David Zhuang. Jun won a silver medal representing China on a
doubles team in the 1992 Barcelona games. She was among the top 20 women in the
world as of the beginning of the year – a crucial distinction that guaranteed
her an Olympic berth. But now she is 27th, with teammate Wang at 25th.
The three women are not only competing individually, but also for a team medal.
There is also a three-time Olympian from the Republic of Georgia,Khatuna Lorig.
She went to the 1992 Olympics as part of the unified federation of former Soviet
republics. In the next two summer games, she represented Georgia. She tried out
for the Georgia team in 2004 but did not make it. The U.S. is the third nation
she will represent at the games.
Along with the nine foreign-born and -trained elite athletes on pace to
represent the United States at the Beijing Games, at least four others just
missed out.
Colleen De Reuck, a top marathoner, represented her native South Africa in the
1992, 1996 and 2000 games, but switched to the U.S., she said, after learning
that South African Olympic officials would not select her again. But she
withdrew before the trials this year, citing a nagging calf injury.
Amniel (Pepe) Naranjo was born in Cuba in 1970 and competed on the national
level there in sprint canoeing. In 1994, he fled to the United States, but
immigration officials sent him to Guantanamo Bay with thousands of other
refugees before granting him asylum. Naranjo and his partner failed to qualify
in the two-man canoe sprints for 500 and 1,000 meters.
Two other foreign elite athletes will not compete for the United States because
they did not get special legislation to accelerate their efforts to get
citizenship.
Tony Gunawan, the 2000 gold medalist in badminton for Indonesia, moved to
California in 2002 to study computer science and coach. Gunawan, considered
perhaps the greatest doubles badminton player of all time, teamed with Howard
Bach to win a world championship in 2005, an unheard of victory for the United
States.
But Gunawan is ineligible for the Olympics, where citizenship rules forbid him
from competing. Gunawan didn’t get his green card until 2006, and needs at
least three years to get citizenship. Bach, meanwhile, will be competing at
Beijing with Khan “Bob” Malaythong, a native of Laos who grew up in
Maryland.
Gymnast Charles León Tamayo, who won Cuba’s first medal at a world
championship at age 20 in 2001, defected to the United States in 2003. But
following pro bono legal advice he applied for asylum. If Tamayo had instead
waited one year after defecting and applied for relief under the Cuban
Adjustment Act, he would have been eligible for a green card immediately,
fast-tracking his bid for citizenship. Instead he was ineligible for the 2004
Olympic teams and is still inelgibile for 2008. To qualify for 2012, when he
will be 31, he is seeking special legislation.
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