Por qué atletas de EE. UU. compiten por otros países (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Why is it that American athletes are choosing to compete for other countries? That's a question a lot of people are wondering during these Olympics. Aileen Gu is the most obvious example. Born in California to a Chinese mum, she competed for the home team at the Beijing Olympics four years ago and became a multi-gold medalist. Zhu Yi was born in LA but figure skates for China. Zoe Adkin was born in Massachusetts but competes for Great Britain in freestyle skiing. And Alison Reid was born in Michigan but ice dances for Lithuania. The USA might regularly top the medal tables, but that doesn't make it necessarily the first choice for an athlete with options. There simply might be greater opportunities with another nation that an athlete could qualify for. And that could be funding, opportunity, commercial value, or it might be something more personal. For example, Gus Kenworthy won a silver medal for the US in Sochi in 2014. But now he skis for Great Britain. One of the reasons for the switch? The homophobia, he says, he experienced on the US team. So this might all seem like a big deal in the Olympics right now, but in a world of more and more dual nationals and third culture kids, we just shouldn't be surprised. Athletes have been switching nations in other sports like soccer for years.