Do you care where they come from?

Today we learnt that British women to be ranked in the top 50 in the world at the same time for more than 25 years. World Number 47 Heather Watson born in Guernsey to a Papua New Guinean mother and has trained at a Tennis Academy in Florida, USA since she was 12. World Number 50 Laura Robson born in Melbourne, Australia then moved to Singapore when she was 18 months old and then to the United Kingdom when she was six but after that she was trained by the Lawn Tennis Association at the National Tennis Centre.

What I am getting at here is that although we should be proud of the performances so far as they are both possible future stars of the sport of tennis, there are both different examples of the most common thing is modern sport.  One is British who went abroad to learn her sport then other is a foreign nation who came to to this country to learn this sport and adopted the nationality, "Multi-National Sport Stars"

Before the Olympics a few newspapers where going on about "Plastic Brits", foreign nationals representing the UK, but after the glorious two week love affair this country had with the Olympic and they have forgotten all about that and is still living off the euphoric high.  But since Immigration had a part to play in at least 24 of the 65 medals claimed by Team GB, should you care?

For me there are four sub categories here;  Firstly born abroad, brought up in the UK, secondly born in UK to foreign parents, thirdly born abroad, lived abroad for most of their lives and finally Born in UK and have gone abroad to train. All of these are quite different and I feel about them very differently.

1. Born abroad and brought up in the UK

My example for this is Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins who was born in Belgium to an English mother and Australian father.  His father was also a pro cyclist whose team was based in Belgium but when Bradley was two his mother moved back to London.  He learned some his training from his father but the coaches which he learnt from part of the British system.  I have no qualms with this, this is a fundamental aspect of British multiculturalism and they have been trained here as well.  Other examples included Mo Farah (Somalia), Luol Deng (Sudan).

2. Born in UK to foreign parents

Sixteen medal-winners have close family links to Nigeria, including 400m silver medal-winner Christine Ohoruogu, whose parents moved to Britain from the west African country in 1980.  She was born in Newham, east London and was raised less than one mile from the 2012 Summer Olympics stadium in Stratford.  Like Bradley this she was trained in the UK and she is a member of Newham and Essex Beagles Athletics Club.  Once again I have no qualms with this. Other examples included Jessica Ennis (Jamaican Father),  Anthony Ogogo (Nigerian father)



3.  Born abroad and lived abroad for most of their lives

Yamilé Aldama is an international triple jumper who competed for Great Britain in 2012 Olympics. Aldama was born in Havana, Cuba, and initially represented her country of birth finishing 4th in 2000 Sydney Olympics. In 2001 she married a Scot and following her marriage she applied for British citizenship. However, shortly after, her husband was sentenced to jail and she had to wait the mandatory three-year period, unlike Zola Budd in 1984, which meant her application wouldn't completed for the 2004 Olympics so she sought a new country to represent, and after offers from Spain, Italy, and the Czech Republic she instead switched to Sudan.

She competed for Sudan in the 2004 & 2008 Olympics and then on February 5, 2010, nearly ten years after her initial application, she finally gained British citizenship and she came 5th in the 2012 games. This is what I don't like, as far as I am concerned an Athlete/Sports person should never compete for more than one country in a competitive event. Other examples included Zola Budd (South Africa), Shara Proctor (Antigua)

4. Born in UK and have gone abroad to train

Andy Murray is now a household name in this country but not many will know that when he was 15 he decided to move to Barcelona, Spain. There he studied at the Schiller International School and trained on the clay courts of the Sánchez-Casal Academy. He left this country because the standard of coaching was not good enough for him and it depresses me but this was obviously the right decision for me as the next highest British male is Jamie Baker who is 246th in the world rankings, 243 places worse off than Murray.
He is undoubtingly British through and through but I still don't feel the same sort of pride in his performance as I do with home trained athletes be them born on the British Isles or not; and it is not because his is Scottish.



From this you can see that I care about this and in some circumstances I hope you do to.