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Immigrants Shined in the American Olympic Teams By: Brenda Tso* This year, around the time of the Olympics, we all were bombarded with McDonalds commercials: the one featuring athletes talking about how they have been training a lifetime for this moment…of eating a chicken sandwich. Apparently, America symbolizes many things: freedom, opportunity, and chicken sandwiches. But this is not as ridiculous as it seems. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony, Lopez Lomong proudly carried the flag of the United States. He was not a typical U.S. athlete, but instead, a foreign-born immigrant refugee, one of the lost boys of Sudan. For Lomong though, the United States was represented in something as insignificant as a chicken sandwich. He describes his first trip to a McDonalds:
And it is all the things this nation stands for, even the seemingly insignificant ones, that has drawn many Olympian immigrant athletes to join Team USA. According to the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), there are at least 33 foreign born athletes competing for the United States in the 2008 Summer Olympics. Unlike most Olympian country-swappers, motivated by money and career, “few of the [United States] immigrants said they came here exclusively to continue their athletic careers. Mostly, they said, they came for love, opportunity, freedom, and education” (Wilson and Lehren, New York Times). The United States government certainly does not monetarily award Olympian medalists. As Jim Scheer, chief executive of the USOC points out, “We think it’s just an offshoot of where athletes want to train and where they want to live and for whom they want to compete. It’s a good thing. Nobody’s out there trading for athletes or offering financial rewards for an athlete to jump from one country to another.” If the United States is particularly worried about its chances in a certain event, special legislation can be passed, expediting citizenship. Such special legislation granted citizenship to three ice dancers (Belbin, Zavozin, and Magerovski), just in time for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. Usually though, under U.S. immigration law, Olympic athletes qualify for the EB-1(a) immigrant visa as an Alien of Extraordinary Ability or for O-1 non-immigrant visas (if they are sponsored by a private employer). In fact, some athletes miss out on the Olympics while in the process of becoming a U.S. citizen. Russian born swimmer Anna Kozlova missed the 1996 Olympic Games while waiting for her green card, but went on to win two bronze medals for the U.S. in the 2004 Olympics. For these athletes, the dream of citizenship comes first and competing in the Olympics, second. In our practice, we have helped many athletes get their O-1 visa or green card in the EB-1(A) category. These athletes are not necessarily top ones who can win medals in the Olympic Games. Some of them won national awards in their home country, but we successfully handled their cases. Immigrants are well represented on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team: a tribute to how unique the United States really is and how much of an influence immigrants have had on the country. Immigrants are part of the American heritage. Henry Cejudo is the youngest American to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling. He is also the son of illegal immigrants. Nastia Liukin emigrated from Russia at age four; she contributed five medals in gymnastics to Team USA. Many Olympic coaches are immigrants as well. Chinese born James Li is the coach of Kenyan born track runner Benard Lagat. Lang Ping helped the Chinese National Team catch the gold in the 1984 Summer Olympics. A few years ago, she became the coach of the U.S. Women’s Volleyball Team, leading to victory over her home country and to a silver medal. For the past ten years, the former Chinese gymnast, Liang Chow, has coached Shawn Johnson, gold medalist for the balance beam. These athletes and coaches receive support and respect from all Americans; the country is proud that they have joined Team USA. As Shawn Johnson said of her Chinese coaches, “I want to be able to take them back to their home country, to their hometown and prove to their home country that they are still successful and they still are the legends that they left behind” (Macur, New York Times). This year’s U.S. Olympic team is truly one to be proud of. It is a reflection of the diversity of the United States, a reflection of how much immigrants give to this country. We are the country that represents the best, whether that be all the chicken sandwiches you can eat or an opportunity to be whatever you want to be. As Cejudo put it, “It’s the best country in the world. They call it the land of opportunity, and it is. Maybe if some other kid watches this, he can do the same” (Wray, Associated Press). * Brenda Tso is a legal researcher at Zhang & Associates. She constantly does research and writes special reports about hot issues in the immigration field. (08/29/2008) For more immigration news, please click here |
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