Uproar In America Over The Inclusion Of Kenyan Athletes To The US Olympics Team Photos
Kenyans are feared regionally due to their entrepreneurial spirit and hardworking nature.
They have a tendency to overshadow the locals in the pursuit for the shilling. It appears the fear has gone international first with Donald Trump particular hate of Kenyans and now athletes from Kenya seeking to represent the US in the Olympics are facing the wrath of some of the citizens over the move. This reaction came following the announcement of that three Kenyans will be representing the US in the coming Rio Olympics.
Shadrack Kipchirchir, Leonard Korir pictures above, have already made the team for 10,000 meters as were to be joined by Paul Chelimo on the 5,000 meters. The three have made it through US army where they enlisted speeding up the naturalization process as they bare serving in the army and joined the World Class Athletes Program provided by the army.
However, the news has not been treated well in several forums with some asking why a US Olympic team would be made of citizens from another country. other questioned the patriotism of the Kenyans as others saw them a threat to American athletes who will lose out places in college scholarships and even Olympic places. Others were blunt racist in their objection saying the Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes are just after the money. The comments on various running forum include opinions like the following;
I follow Track And Field closely and I don’t recall this happening in the past. So not only are Americans being displaced in college scholarships by foreign athletes, they are now being crowded out of their own Olympic team by these same people with the aid and approval of the US military.
One can only wonder why the current group are all from the President’s father’s homeland and the conduit–the United States Army–is linked to the Commander-In-Chief.
my glasses are clear wrote:
I’m going to tell it like it is, and this has nothing to do with xenophobia or racism. This is the full truth. They are only in it for the money. They don’t give two seashells about “the American dream”– it’s a facade. They want to race on the American circuit, make way more money they they otherwise would as a C class Kenyan, and send the money back home to their families.
They will join the Army, marry an American (and possibly divorce soon after), continue to take minimal college courses to remain in the country, overstay their Vida, claim “asylum”, etc.. Whatever it takes to be able to stay in America and continue to make much more money than what they’d make in Kenya, Ethiopia, etc.. These are not well intentioned Kenyans living the “American dream”.
This is why so many are opposed to what’s happening. It’s all so fake, and we’re seeing through the rose colored glasses.
I don’t care that native Kenyans are running for the US Army. But I’m not a fan of people who were born outside of the US being US olympians. Doesn’t matter if they’re from Africa or Asia or Europe, etc… If nationalism has no place in the olympics, then their shouldn’t be national teams.
However, since there were no American-born athletes that were close to the Kenyans in the race I don’t care too much in this particular instance.
BTW, all of the Kenyans I have met during collegiate racing and post-collegiate road racing have been great guys. You message board heros who like to make this debate about racism are being silly. Most or all of us respect Kenyans and immigrants from anywhere else. We’d just prefer the US Olympic team be composed of US-born athletes, including those whose parents are immigrants.
The current WCAP track and field roster under Browne has eight members: seven native Kenyan distance runners and a race walker.
Five of the Kenyans have joined the Army since 2014. The race walker joined in 2000.
Make of that what you will.
Ok, so they’re in this World Class Athlete Program. I did a little googling and it looks like Chelimo and Kipchirchir are both in Oregon (and affiliated with Nike), while Leonard Korir is in Colorado Springs. So my question becomes, what actual obligations do these guys have to the Army? Chelimo’s training in Oregon, at Nike in Beaverton, with Dan Browne. So what is he actually doing for the Army? Does he have army-related training/work responsibilities?
Read more:http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=7163051#ixzz4EMkidc00
Read more:http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=7441269&page=3#ixzz4EMkCEyVD
