Becky Hammon is a member of the Russian Womens Basketball team in the Olympics starting today ... and it is amazing how many people suddenly notice the WNBA ...
A track athlete recently qualified for his third Olympics, but his first since becoming a US citizen ... so after competing for Kenya he now competes for the USA ... A girl from Marysville competes for an island nation she has never been to but her father was born on ...
In Kenya, the distance runners are amazing and the Olympic trials for those teams are actually deeper than the Olympic race itself ... One year, 9 of the top 10 runners in one distance event were Kenyans, meaning that 6 of the top 10 could not go to the Olympics ... sounds like a similar situation to Becky ... since he had a better chance by changing teams ...
Becky? Nope, she is considered a "traitor". All she has done is attain Russian Olympic eligibility ... and when faced with never being an Olympian or playing for the country she currently spends part of her year playing in she chose to play ... leave her alone ...
Olympic eligibility is a bizarre thing that gets abused, but it is hard to blame someone for taking the opportunity ... I'm not sure I would suit up for Russia, but that was not a choice I had to make.
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