Will Kenyan-born marathoner represent South Korea at Olympics?

[aki-san.livejournal.com]

Wilson Loyanae Erupe, a marathoner born in Kenya who hopes to become a South Korean citizen, waves at cameras after arriving at Incheon International Airport on June 23, 2015. (Yonhap)

The athletics community is divided over having a Kenyan-born marathoner running for South Korea at an Olympics as a naturalized citizen, unable to agree on the potential impact the move will have on the sport's long-term future.

Wilson Loyanae Erupe, a 26-year-old from Kenya, arrived in South Korea on Tuesday to join an athletics club run by the Cheongyang County Office in South Chungcheong Province.

He plans to enter the 2015 Gyeongju International Marathon on Oct. 11 in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, and he will start taking steps to obtain his South Korean passport afterward.

The Korean Association of Athletics Federations will write a letter of recommendation for Erupe, and the Korean Olympic Committee will review the application.

The KAAF believes Erupe can help make South Korea more competitive in the marathon, and he brings a solid track record.

Erupe has run in four international marathons, all of them in South Korea. He won the 2011 Gyeongju International Marathon in 2:09:23 and took the 2012 Seoul International Marathon in 2:05:37, the fastest time ever in the event.

After defending his Gyeongju title in 2012, Erupe also won this year's Seoul International Marathon in 2:06:11.

His personal best of 2:05:37 is nearly two minutes faster than the South Korean record of 2:07:20, set by former Olympic silver medalist Lee Bong-ju in 2000.

"I'd like to become a South Korean citizen," he told reporters upon arriving here. "My goal is to win the gold medal for South Korea at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. I'd be really happy to become a South Korean, but I'd be even happier if I win the Olympic gold."

Sports officials agree that getting the passport won't be much of a hurdle for Erupe, who has already given himself a South Korean name "Oh Joo-han," which is translated as "I run for Korea."

When it comes to Erupe's possible national team selection though, it seems to be an entirely different matter.

One athletics official, who declined to be identified, said, while the sport's administrators support Erupe's selection to the national team, coaches tend to be against the move.

The official explained that the opponents would rather see homegrown runners try to revive the once-proud marathon tradition in the country rather than foreign-born athletes.

South Korea produced marathon medalists in back-to-back Olympics in the 1990s. Hwang Young-cho won the gold medal at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, while Lee took the silver by three seconds at the following Olympics in Atlanta. In between, Hwang also won the Asian Games gold in 1994 in Hiroshima.

Those glories are a distant memory. No South Korean has even gone under the 2:10:00 mark since Jeong Jin-hyeok's 2:09:28 in 2011.

And this is where the proponents of Erupe's selection see the need for a shot in the arm, an infusion of fresh blood -- be it South Korean or African.

"Our marathon has really stagnated for years," the official said. "And I am sure Erupe will have a positive impact on the sport."

If South Korea picks Erupe for the national team, the country will follow in the footsteps of other Asian nations -- mostly the oil-rich ones in the Middle East -- who have naturalized African-born athletes. To wit: Femi Ogunode, who was born in Nigeria but now represents Qatar, set the Asian record in the men's 100 meters with the time of 9.91 seconds at the Asian Athletics Championships on June 4. He shed 0.02 second from his own Asian record, set at the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea's Incheon.

Only one Asian-born sprinter, Su Bingtian of China, has run the 100 meters under 10 seconds, having clocked 9.99 on May 31.

More examples can be found right at home. Dang Ye-seo, born in China, won a table tennis bronze medal in the women's team event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She is the first naturalized South Korean citizen to win an Olympic medal.

In men's hockey, three Canadian-born and one American-born players have obtained South Korean passports, and they will likely play for South Korea when it makes its Winter Olympics debut at the 2018 competition on home ice in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province.

Count Jim Paek, head coach of the men's hockey team, as among those skeptical about the positive impact of taking naturalized athletes to the Olympics. In an earlier interview with Yonhap News Agency, Paek said even though having foreign-born players can help South Korea immediately, he'd still like to develop homegrown talent for the future.

The conundrum that Paek faces may apply to other sports. Foreign-born athletes can raise the standard of play and push South Koreans to greater heights, but the imports can also take away opportunities for the Korean-born athletes to play and develop.

Chang Dal-young, a sports columnist and an attorney for local law firm APEX, said foreign-born athletes who are fast-tracked to South Korean citizenship will also face some public backlash.

"If we give foreign nationals South Korean passports with the Olympics or other international competitions on the horizon, then fans will view them merely as hired guns asked to provide quick results," Chang said. "Skeptics won't necessarily see them as athletes representing the country. Also, as we receive more foreign-born athletes, we need to review and tighten processes for national team selection."



Under the current set of rules guiding national teams, Erupe won't be eligible for the 2016 Summer Olympics. He failed an out-of-competition doping test in 2012 and received a two-year ban from the International Association of Athletics Federations in early 2013.

He returned to competition earlier this year, but under the KOC rules, an athlete who has served a doping ban is ineligible for any national team for three years following the end of the suspension.

It's the same rule that has affected the future of former Olympic swimming champ Park Tae-hwan, who will remain suspended until March next year after failing a doping test last fall.

Some in the legal community say the KOC rule is a measure of double punishment, similar to the now-annulled "Osaka Rule."

Originally adopted by the International Olympic Committee in 2008, the Osaka Rule barred athletes who had served a doping-related suspension for at least half a year from competing at the following Olympic Games.

In 2011, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the world's highest sports tribunal, ruled that the Osaka Rule was "a violation of the IOC's own Statute and is therefore invalid and unenforceable."

The KOC, however, has already said it doesn't plan on amending the rule anytime soon. It hasn't budged for Park, a national icon and the first South Korean to win an Olympic swimming medal, and it likely won't make any move for Erupe.

Oh Chang-seok, a former men's national marathon coach who now acts as an agent for Erupe, thinks he believes Erupe can still be competitive for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Oh blamed a malaria vaccine that Erupe received on a bus in Kenya for the positive test and said the athlete is squeaky clean now.

"If he had taken illegal substances on purpose, he wouldn't have posted such a good record after missing two years," said Oh, professor in the department of sports science at Baekseok University in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. "He's clean, and he has statements from Kenyan doctors to back it up."

Erupe, who called his positive doping test "unfortunate," said he trained hard during his suspension.

"While training and competing in South Korea, I had a good impression of the country and its people," Erupe said. "I hope to become a South Korean citizen and help marathon here."

By Yoo Jee-ho


Yonhap News, The Korea Observer

Olympics fans of Omona, how do you feel about naturalized citizens competing?

Comments

[carra-mia.livejournal.com]

I feel positive about it when naturalized ones really have a strong relation to the country like been living or training there for long, have family here, generally a decent conection. It rubs me the wrong way when it happens only bc the athlete got into a beef with people/ his sport's union in the first country or the sport activist here desperatly want some medals and would take anybody with nice results in. Like you suppose to represent not just work in corporation style.

[ah-mui.livejournal.com]

Beef with people/ sport's union? How about Viktor Ahn then? It's not completely his fault that he's fallen out of favour in his own country, and as an athlete it's understandable that he'd want opportunities that he wouldn't have gotten had he stayed a Korean.

[carra-mia.livejournal.com]

I think that conflict cases are really individual thing and since I don't know details here I won't talk. But I'm more understanding for people who chose to represent diff country when its strictly olympic/championship sport and would have no other chance to compete

[audiograms.livejournal.com]

On the one hand they should go for it, but at the same time, I don't like it when it feels that countries are buying athletes with their offers of citizenship.

[huanyia.livejournal.com]

mhm i have the same mixed feelings

Commenting on my own post

[aki-san.livejournal.com]

I can understand the frustration athletes must feel when they come from a country where the bench is really deep in their sport. You can be one of the best int he world and not make it onto your national team just because there's so much internal competition. On the other hand, just going to a random country that'll fast-track your naturalization process seems... I don't even know how to put it. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Re: Commenting on my own post

[mamamoos.livejournal.com]

these are my feelings. kinda defeats the purpose of the olympics when people are more in it for themselves than a country they have a strong personal connection to.

Re: Commenting on my own post

[ah-mui.livejournal.com]

Mixed feelings for me too.

I got a bit frustrated once when I was watching my country going against Singapore in table tennis and get shut out, and my Singaporean friend told me oh they're actually from China but they're obviously not the best there and has no chance being on their national team so they play for Singapore. That said, their foreign talent scheme gets mixed results in general (apart from table tennis and badminton) and they do push home grown talent.

Re: Commenting on my own post

[ultimaaa.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way. It really hits close to home for me because I'm an athlete in a sport with a huge depth of field in my country (curling in Canada), and while I'm good enough to get to the national level there's a scant chance in hell I would ever make it to the Olympics because everyone else is that much better. As a result, you'll sometimes see Canadians go to other countries to coach or compete. Like, I would never do it myself because I'd want the pride of competing for my home country, but on the other hand I don't blame those who do. I guess it's one of those ethical dilemmas.

Re: Commenting on my own post

[zeysech.livejournal.com]

I hadn't considered that, you have a very good point.

[imienazwisko.livejournal.com]

my country has a long history of neutralizing sportsmen... not to mention long list of people with double citizenships not picking up playing for poland bc of reasons.
each football world cup/europe championship qualification sees random players getting polish passport just to play few matches and then disappear. i remember ping pong team had chinese female players representing poland too...

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

i agree with the comments on omona, that i feel ambivalent about the issue but that aside the fact that he picked out a korean name for himself and it means i run for korea is really cute lulz

[agoongprincess.livejournal.com]

eh honestly athletes don't have very long careers so they need to make the most of it while they can. not many of them have the luxury of waiting around for their home country to see their potential.

his korean name is really cute awwww, i wish him the best of luck & hope he does well.

[xxhna.livejournal.com]

ia.

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

Mfte

[countingcr0ws.livejournal.com]

But damn, Korea's probably one of the most xenophobic countries to represent. I wouldn't have chosen Korea if I wanted to represent a country but his name is cute, lol. But tbh, I don't know how much they really do integrate into the countries the represent for. Practice happens to often, and my country have foreign athletes that got the passport. A pretty big named athlete later went home after retirement, citing that she couldn't fit in and she didn't like it. Probably a unique case, but idk.

[mymanhas2jobs.livejournal.com]

his korean name is so cute tho

[zeysech.livejournal.com]

I feel great about it, after all your home isn't always the place you were born.

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

I have no issues with that. Athletes don't have long careers and they have to make the most of every opportunity. If their country can't support them, it's great that they can represent another.