Posted on 02/19/2014 10:46:56 PM PST by cunning_fish
What's that old saying?
If you don't like the resources your nation is devoting to your snowboarding discipline, move to Russia?
Yeah, well, that's exactly what Vic Wild of White Salmon, Wash., did back in 2011 after he figured that parallel slalom snowboarding wasn't a high priority for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. He obtained Russian citizenship upon marrying Russian girlfriend Alena Zavarzina in Siberia and then went to work representing a different kind of red, white and blue flag. While the U.S. focused on events like halfpipe and slopestyle, the Russians were much more serious about Alpine snowboard racing.
“I told everybody in the Russian snowboard federation: If you guys take me, you’ll never regret it,” Wild told the Wall Street Journal this week.
And it won't regret anything. Wild won the gold medal in the parallel giant slalom on Wednesday, an event that saw only one American entrant. Wild later celebrated with his wife Zavarzina, a fellow snowboarder who won bronze in the women's event, and draped himself in a Russian flag.
Wild's gold medal will certainly help Russian compete against the U.S. in the medal count, but American officials weren't decrying an opportunity lost on Wednesday.
At least not publicly:
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
My interest in snowboarding is probably less than I care about what Charles Manson had for lunch yesterday. And I don’t give a flying fig what Charles Manson had for lunch yesterday.
Ah, righteous dude...
The Russian teams are based on merit, not political correctness.
Whatever the faults of Vic Wild, wife Alena Zavarzina is Not Guilty!
Ah, Bronze vs. Gold... Win-win!
Boy, I'll say!
What does that mean?
It means that the US recognizes that a person can be a citizen of the US and also a citizen of another country at the same time. I have know many people who immigrated to the US, but retained citizenship in another country.
>>>It means that the US recognizes that a person can be a citizen of the US and also a citizen of another country at the same time. I have know many people who immigrated to the US, but retained citizenship in another country.<<<
AFAIK, some countries demand people to officially denounce their former citizenship (for example Germany). There is no such (at least formal) thing in both US and Russia.
Keeping both passports making it easy to travel (you don’t need to apply for visa etc.)
He lives in Russia and married a Russian girl, who is also an Olympian. They showed a video of their wedding in Russia.
The whole notion of any well-trained individual can become the *best* in the world in an event has become so marginalized.
Another reason to not support the 'lympics.
Did Costas get over his conjunctivitis? That had been the mostly exciting part of these spectacles thus far.
He’s not alone
American athletes representing other countries in Sochi
Yes, unfortunately, Costas finally did shake the conjunctivitis and make an appearance. Not a fan of Matt Lauer, who looks really ridiculous with that goatee, but it was better than listening to Costas, whom I despise mightily.
Costas is one of the main reasons I stopped watching the Olympics years ago. But, now, we have a DVR, so we can zip right through the garbage.
There are a number of US-born Jewish athletes that represent Israel too.
In lacrosse, half of Team Israel at this year’s World Championship’s are American Jews. There will also be a couple of American Jews on the US team too.
It’s silly to make blanket statements against Americans that end up on foreign teams; all circumstances are individual. He MARRIED the Russian girl and the article states that America didn’t really have a team in this discipline.
And it works both ways - look at how many dual citizenship soccer players from Europe and Mexico/South America who have played for the US national team in soccer, including a few on this year’s team, like the kid from Iceland and Jermaine Jones from Germany.
But the xenophobes on this site never bother checking that part out either . . .
If I had a brother who quit his country just to win a medal, he wouldn’t have to worry about talking to me anymore. Quit your country just to win a f..... medal. That guy is a tool.
Uhm, I’m not filled with hatred or Misery and I don’t care about the Olympics.
Funny how nobody mentions how he qualified to compete for Russia in the first place even though he was American-born. He's required to be a Russian citizen to compete for Russia, and he qualified for Russian citizenship by marrying a Russian. Was that unpatriotic of him, too?
Must really piss off the IRS, they cannot tax any Gold medals.
Its a different Russia now, and if it has to be done to compete more power to these athletes. I have no problem with it, actually I wish I could have done what he did.
Meh... The guy wanted to compete and it appears the USA had first dibs and declined. No one should fault him for seeking a team that would take him -and- he’s just proven he was a *very* capable competitor.
Another thing to consider is that the guy married a Russian national and presuming it was true love, I won’t fault him there either.
I could be wildly misconstruing, but there seems to be an element of the USA having *ownership* of some sort to this guy in addition to the guy choosing Russia over the US. That doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t think any country should *own* anyone. I believe that a country should attract citizens of their own free will, rather than claiming some sort of leash on a person.
There are a lot of advantages to being an American citizen (compared to other countries) that this guy will lose if he renounces his US citizenship (beyond the loving, kind, caring treatment afforded by the IRS, TSA, NSA and the rest of the alphabet-agencies). If he chooses to walk away from those advantages, I would think him a fool but that’s his decision.
But considering national “marketing” efforts to attract citizens who are for whatever reason considered a net-asset to the country, Russia offered the dude something the USA chose not to. What’s the USA currently trying to focus on to attract quality citizens? The net-loss of amnesty for unskilled mexican peasant’s fleeing some hell-hole existence to come suckle at the teat of the US taxpayer and forever vote dummycrat.
So, I won’t fault him for his choice given the circumstances. Opinions may vary.
What legal documentation from the US assesses this?
Eg does the US put dual citizenship on their passport? No.
How does the US “recognize” this, to use your term?
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