A judo world championship bronze medalist from Cuba who got back into the sport after moving to America. The son of a pioneer in the new Olympic sport of breaking who came to the US after an arduous journey through the desert. Basketball players and track and field athletes who came to the USA for college and professional sports who decided to represent their new country internationally.
Many of the 594 athletes named to the US Olympic team this summer are immigrants or the children of immigrants, all of whom have chosen to represent a country that is in the throes of a movement that would have limited their ability to get there or stay there, even through legal means.
An analysis by George Mason University’s Institute for Immigration Research found that 3.7% of athletes on this year’s US Olympic team are foreign-born, while more than 7% are children of immigrants or second-generation immigrants.
Some athletes came to the USA specifically for sports and then became citizens. That’s a common pathway in track and field – Leonard Korir is one of many distance runners from Africa who have come to the USA for college and wound up representing his new country. In Korir’s case, his national service isn’t limited to the track; he has also joined the US Army.
But even in a sport like basketball, long dominated by US athletes, immigrants can pop up on the roster. Joel Embiid was born and grew up in Cameroon before coming to the USA as a high school student to pursue a basketball career.
Other foreign-born athletes have joined Team USA for myriad reasons, from athletic opportunities to harrowing escapes from dangerous situations in their native countries:
Abdihamid Nur (track and field): The distance runner was born in Somalia, but his family didn’t stay there much longer after his birth. They escaped to Kenya, then lived a few years in Egypt before coming to the USA.
Maria Laborde (judo): Many US sports have athletes who left Cuba seeking greater opportunities in life and sports, and judo is no exception. Laborde won a bronze medal in the 2014 World Championships while competing for Cuba. But at another competition later that year in Mexico, Laborde left the Cuban delegation and sought asylum, giving up a likely berth in the 2016 Olympics along with everything she knew from home.
Weini Kelati (track and field): Oregon’s Hayward Field is a legendary venue in track and field and one that will always hold special meaning for Kelati. After representing Eritrea in the 2014 World Junior Championships at Hayward, Kelati sought asylum. She moved to Virginia, earned a scholarship at the University of New Mexico and gained her citizenship just before the Olympic trials in 2021 – held at Hayward Field. She didn’t make the team that year, but she returned to Hayward for this year’s trials and won a thrilling 10,000m race in which the lead changed hands multiple times on the final lap.
Steffen Peters (equestrian): When the dressage specialist was unable to get his citizenship processed in time to compete for the US in the 1992 Olympics, US team official Fiona Baan came up with what, in hindsight, is one of the understatements of the 20th century, telling the Los Angeles Times, “He’s a young fellow and I’m sure that we will see him in the future.” This summer, Peters competed in his sixth Olympics at the age of 59.
Beiwen Zhang (badminton): Born in China and also represented Singapore internationally before moving to the USA and continuing a career in which she has been ranked in the top 10 worldwide several times in recent years.
Some athletes’ parents came to the USA as refugees
Naomi Girma (soccer), Ethiopia: In 1977, a repressive regime took control of Ethiopia, spawning a civil war and a famine. Girma Aweke, a teenager at the time, joined a clandestine opposition movement until conditions deteriorated so badly that he fled, at one point relying on a family of strangers who cared for him while he suffered from malaria, and finally made it into Sudan, where he was selected for a resettlement program that brought him to San Francisco. He worked at restaurants, put himself through college and married a fellow Ethiopian. Their daughter, Naomi Girma, inherited her father’s love of soccer and became one of the most dependable center backs in the game. She ranked 36th among The Guardian’s most recent listing of the top 100 female footballers in the world.
Yared Nuguse (track and field), Ethiopia: Alem Nuguse was a teacher in Ethiopia in the early 80s until he was imprisoned. Upon his release, he followed a similar path to Girma Aweke’s, heading to Sudan and going on to the United States, where he married someone from the same region of Ethiopia. Their son, Yared, went to Tokyo in 2021 but had to withdraw from the Games with a quad strain. He’s going back again as a medal contender, currently ranked second in the world in the 1500m.
Victor Montalvo (breaking), Mexico: Victor and Hector Bermudez were prominent breakdancers in Mexico who escaped poverty and gang violence by walking through the Chihuahuan Desert. A few years later, after they settled in the United States, they showed their kids a few moves. Victor’s son, Victor Montalvo, was so inspired that he became one of the best in the world, winning the 2022 World Games competition and the 2023 world championship.
Lilia Vu (golf), Vietnam: Vu’s grandfather, Dinh Du, spent months building a makeshift boat to get his family and dozens more out of Vietnam. Just as the boat started to leak, Du’s flares drew the attention of a US Navy vessel that rescued everyone on board.
• This article was amended on 5 August 2024. Victor Montalvo won the breaking World Games competition in 2022, not 2002 as a previous version said.
