Switching Athletic "Citizenship"

tjmurray

Bronze
Aug 11, 2006
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Does anyone know the deal regarding an athlete?s status for competing in international competitions when the athlete is a dual citizen and has already participated for one country? I am referring to the case of Charlie Villanueva who played for the United States sub-21 team and has recently filed papers to be released from that contract and play for the Dominican basketball team. This is similar to Felix Sanchez?s case where he had participated in international events with the US, but then went ahead to run for the DR in the 2004 Olympics. And now there is the case of Fernando Guerrero who was born in the DR but wasn?t allowed to box for the US team because he wasn?t a citizen. He eventually boxed for the Dominican team and now there come reports that he is fight for the U.S team. Any thoughts?

By the way in 5 years the Dominican national basketball team will be amazing. Francisco Garc?a, Al Horford, Edgar Sosa, Sammy Mejia, Lu?s Flores, and Charlie Villanueva. That?s six NBA/NCAA caliber players on one team, not to mention a quality bench that has international experience with Jack Michael Martinez, Ivan Almonte, Amaury Fillion and others.
 

tjmurray

Bronze
Aug 11, 2006
627
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As for Guerrero, check out this story about him in Sports Illustrated. I figure if he's anywhere near as good as the hype soon we'll have an Olympic gold medalist in boxing. Regardless of where he is and what flag he waves, we'll still consider him Dominican.