How one Swedish man stole the American born, raised, and trained Mondo Duplantis from us

Track is an individual sport. I don't know why people here care so much about what country an athlete represents.

Individual sport is an interesting take. But i dont understand why that matters. 1 person, 10 ppl.. what difference does it make? They compete on the world stage and take home medals, similar to how sports teams do, but they also set records. National records. something sports teams do not.

If anything, this matters more in individual sports, dont you think?

OozmaKappa wrote:

Mondo wanted to represent the counry where he was born raised and trained in, America.

Just a nitpick on your description: America is not a country; it is a landmass.

Otherwise, I don’t mind Mondo competing for Sweden. Lots of athletes do it. He’s wildly successful over there.

If Mondo was dark skinned and competed for a central American country this message board would be stoning him to death.

I dont think that's how it went down. I suspect he was jumping really well, but looking at the depth in America, wondering if it would be tough to make a team. I think he saw that Sweden was fairly track friendly, so there would be a bit of money there in sponsorships, but it was a lot weaker competition. Making teams would be much easier.

Keep in mind that he made this decision when he was ranked maybe 300th in the world. He was the best ever for his age, but it was also unprecedented for somebody to have started jumping as a toddler... so it was no guarantee he would improve by 4 feet from when he made that decision.

As it turns out, he continued to improve significantly from when he made that decision, and wouldn't have had any trouble making an Olympic team in the US (or any other country, obviously).

Financially, it may still have made sense, even as the best in the world. Contracts for American athletes tend to bring a bit of a premium, because the advertising market is large and wealthy. But Sweden is also wealthy, and a bigger percentage follows track, and he is the only massive star in the sport from that country, so that helps offset the smaller market "at home."

not acceptable wrote:

If Mondo was dark skinned and competed for a central American country this message board would be stoning him to death.

.. LOL

Take, for instance, Luis Grijalva. Born in Guatemala, brought to America at the age of 1, raised in California, went to college in Arizona.

Hes not an american citizen, so he cant represent the US at the olympics, but he found a legal way to go represent Guatemala and then return back to the US to continue living here.

My take on this, I love my country. I think any success that happens on our soil is due, in part, to our great country. To represent the US at the olympics is not just a privilege, but also a way to give a little bit of credit to our country for your achievements.

Now obviously I think our countrt reserves the right to be selective about who gets to live here, but if you live here in my eyes you're American. If you were raised here, and even if not, if you train here youre American.

So Im open to letting people like Luis Grivalva be on team USA, as well as Kenyan ex-pats who get a lot of hate cause ppl focus too much on race/ethnicity for determining who is a true American or european or whatever.

A. Duplantis avoided U.S. Olympic Trial in 115F heat with humidity.

So you'll take Kenyan expats, who are elite not due to US assistance nor heritage, but you complain about a guy with Swedish heritage representing his mother's birth country.

You don't complain about the brotrher Andreas though, nor would you if he didn't achieve much in athletics.

OozmaKappa wrote:

Now obviously I think our countrt reserves the right to be selective about who gets to live here,

The migrant's resource contradiction.

Established migrants are usually the most selective about new migrants.

...and I am classing you as an established or descendant of established migrant.

Everyone feels they have the right to migrate, but once there they feel that new migrants would compete for their resources

Who said I was complaining? Tf 🤣

Another guy said it's probably for economic reasons and that's fine. I'm just saying he's an American and his records are American and his medals are American because he was born raised and trained in America.

I am Sam wrote:

OozmaKappa wrote:

Now obviously I think our countrt reserves the right to be selective about who gets to live here,

The migrant's resource contradiction.

Established migrants are usually the most selective about new migrants.

...and I am classing you as an established or descendant of established migrant.

Everyone feels they have the right to migrate, but once there they feel that new migrants would compete for their resources

Wow, you got me. I'm not a Native American. Guess I can't say that the US has the right to enforce immigration laws becaue im not 100% Cherokee. 🤡

You wanna talk about stolen land while you're at it? Should I pack my bags and sail back across the ocean?🤣

How many times have the US stolen athletes from other countries? Paul Chelimo etc

Guatemala is in America.

that video thumbnail is the only image ever captured of a muscle on that kid

He is the living proof that fitness or athleticism never had anything to do with PV, it's a skill thing like skateboarding. Okay maybe you have to have some sprint speed.

Dwightarm wrote:

OozmaKappa wrote:

Mondo wanted to represent the counry where he was born raised and trained in, America.

Just a nitpick on your description: America is not a country; it is a landmass.

Otherwise, I don’t mind Mondo competing for Sweden. Lots of athletes do it. He’s wildly successful over there.

Yes! Thank you!

FFS get over it!

Dwightarm wrote:

Just a nitpick on your description: America is not a country; it is a landmass.

The only people who ever refer to America as a landmass are people who are complaining about Americans using the term to describe their country. I've been called out on using the term "America" to refer to the U.S. while abroad, yet without fail, the same people who smugly corrected me about the name of my own country also referred to the U.S. as America at various points in conversation. People refer to "the Americas," "North America," or "South America," but nobody is ever honestly confused about what someone means when they say "America." And "American" is literally the only demonym for someone from the United States; "United Statesian" isn't even a word. Why is the United States the only whose people aren't allowed to decide what the country should be called? We've been calling the country (not the region or landmass) "America" since the 18th Century.

R u joking with this? It’s not that serious.

America is a landmass in this hemisphere. Americas is the two continents that compose it.

Our country already has a name. Calling us ‘America’ is like calling South Africa just ‘Africa’; you see how dumb that sounds?

Chill out.

It happens. GB lost a world class long jumper (Fiona May) because the governing body wouldn't fund her properly. Italy, a country she qualified for through marriage, offered her money and coaching support. Fair play in my opinion. Mondo looks happy with his decision