Posted on 02/19/2014 10:46:56 PM PST by cunning_fish
What's that old saying?
If you don't like the resources your nation is devoting to your snowboarding discipline, move to Russia?
Yeah, well, that's exactly what Vic Wild of White Salmon, Wash., did back in 2011 after he figured that parallel slalom snowboarding wasn't a high priority for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. He obtained Russian citizenship upon marrying Russian girlfriend Alena Zavarzina in Siberia and then went to work representing a different kind of red, white and blue flag. While the U.S. focused on events like halfpipe and slopestyle, the Russians were much more serious about Alpine snowboard racing.
“I told everybody in the Russian snowboard federation: If you guys take me, you’ll never regret it,” Wild told the Wall Street Journal this week.
And it won't regret anything. Wild won the gold medal in the parallel giant slalom on Wednesday, an event that saw only one American entrant. Wild later celebrated with his wife Zavarzina, a fellow snowboarder who won bronze in the women's event, and draped himself in a Russian flag.
Wild's gold medal will certainly help Russian compete against the U.S. in the medal count, but American officials weren't decrying an opportunity lost on Wednesday.
At least not publicly:
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
I think a South Korean also won gold playing for Russia
At least they are attracting accomplished people there, not freeloaders and gang-bangers.
there's some wnba type players that play for Russia too....
it doesn't mean anything anymore...
this creep snowboarder better not think he's coming back here to enjoy America anymore...I hope he gets booed and his family too....the US doesn not recognize duel citizenship so goodbye jerk...
Playing for another country is only justified if you fail to make the American team.
Germans look for German last names.
If it’s good, with a German last name, then it’s German.
Actually, the US does recognize dual citizenship. He forfeits it if he is naturalized in another country and intends to renounce citizenship at that time.
I was informed just the other day by a Canadian that they recognize duel citizenship but the USA does not....but no matter....just hope the jerk stays over there becuz to me having that flag over his shoulders was a total insult to this country....
“the US doesn not recognize duel citizenship so goodbye jerk...”
Actually, the US does. It pays when you have an immigration attorney friend and other friends with even 3 passports to one name.
But going back to playing for another country, sometimes it goes the other way. How many times has the US soccer team “poach” other hyphenated Americans overseas to play for the US?
case in point, Aron Johanson of Iceland who plays for the US team. He got blasted by the Icelandic media for picking the US instead of the country he grew up with. Meaning, he’s a real damn good player when your own country kills you in the media for not picking the local national team.
Adam Smith’s invisible hand at work.
I’m glad I’m not watching any of the Olympics because this really pisses me off royally...
So because of what this guy did, you have decided NONE of our athletes deserve to be watched or supported. Enjoy wallowing in your hatred and misery. Myself,,,I refuse to allow hatred to consume me to such a degree that I can’t even enjoy the olympics.
Either way, what does it matter? Whether he plays a silly sport for Russia or plays a silly sport for America, he is just playing a silly sport. He hasn't gone over and joined the Russian foreign legion, he hasn't smuggled national secrets to Russia, he hasn't renounced the US. All he did was play a silly game. I presume he played the silly game for Russia because that's the team that offered to take him on.
Either way, its just a game. I will NEVER understand why people take the Olympics so seriously. Sheesh.
And the reason why a Canadian would know more about US citizenship than, for instance, the US Department of State, which does have a website is.....?
just not into the hype...period...good grief....
okay...I’m wrong....I’m wrong...I’m wrong...
I chose not to watch after much of the US Olumpic team wanted to make so much of a statement around LGBT support. Hell with ‘em.
We are (officially) no longer in a Cold War as when I was growing up. Still, when I read that this expatriate/Gold Medalist DRAPED HIMSELF IN THE RUSSIAN FLAG, I was, shall we say, ‘disturbed’. I;d really have to be driven out by unbearable circumstance before I traded my American citizenship for that of Russsia. If I were faced with Zimmerman’s enforced pariah status, or Eric Snowden’s Big Mistake-Fugitive status, I may consider moving to, one of the Dakotas, Alaska, or Canada. I like seeing Putin make a bigger fool out of Obama than he does for himself, but I still dont trust that KGB man very much. I hear he has been ‘palling around’ with the mullahs of Iran, more than before.
No. I don’t think you are wrong.
How does the US “recognize dual citizenship”?
What does that mean?
it means we get to tax the crap out of him
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