Word: citizenship
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...pride always takes center stage at the Olympics, where the medals table measures a country's worth and the victors beam as they hear their national anthems. But what happens when the athletes don't know the lyrics - or even the language? Though they're required to hold Georgian citizenship to compete under Georgia's flag in the Olympics, the Brazilian-born athletes barely speak a word of Georgian and have no family ties to the former Soviet republic. In fact, they've only visited the country a few times - to pick up their passports and presumably to finalize their...
...sports that are saturated with talent back home. For others - including, in some cases, the Olympics' governing body - it can be a violation of the very spirit of the games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) now requires a three-year waiting period between the time an athlete gets citizenship in a country and the time he or she can compete on its Olympic team. "What is not legitimate," Jacques Rogge, the IOC chief, said in 2004, "is when an athlete sells himself as a mercenary...
...1990s, when Qatar began importing Bulgarian weight lifters, one of whom, Angel Popov, won a bronze medal in the 2000 Olympics under his adopted Arab name, Saif Saeed Asaad. Since then, Qatar and Bahrain have each shelled out millions of dollars to persuade athletes to change their citizenship, tossing in lucrative incentives for setting world records and bringing home Olympic gold...
...Holden, a journeyman American guard who never made it to the NBA but who has been a catalyst for the Russian national team. But the real sniping began with the "defection" of Becky Hammon, a WNBA star who signed a contract with a Russian club that helped her gain citizenship and a spot on the national team for these Games. Like Holden, the South Dakota native has no family links to Russia, and she can't read the Cyrillic on her new red passport. But as she was the 2007 runner-up MVP in the WNBA, Hammon's decision stung...
...This conflict has been brewing for years. Russia has deliberately instigated the breakup of Georgian territory. Moscow has promoted secessionist activities in several Georgian provinces: Abkhazia, Ajaria and, of course, South Ossetia. It has sponsored rebellious governments in these territories, armed their forces and even bestowed Russian citizenship on the secessionists. These efforts have intensified since the emergence in Georgia of a democratic, pro-Western government. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's resentment toward Georgia and its President, the U.S.-educated Mikheil Saakashvili, has seemingly become a personal obsession...