If you’re watching the Olympics live, or just sticking with the highlights to make things easier (less emotional investment), you may have caught wind of Bahrain winning a gold in the 3 000m steeplechase.

But the winner, Ruth Jebet, is in fact Kenyan-born – and she isn’t the only Kenyan competing for a country other than her own.

According to Quartz:

Jebet is one of at least 30 Kenyan-born athletes competing for other countries in the Olympics, ranging from the United States to Bosnia. Ethiopian and Nigerian athletes like Femi Ogunode and Ezinne Okparaebo are also competing for their adopted countries, Qatar and Norway.

Bahrain’s Olympic track field team is almost entirely made up athletes originally from Africa. Half of the men’s team hail from Nigeria, Ethiopia, or Kenya while almost all of the women’s team are from those same countries.

But switching allegiances isn’t new in the world of sport. Sure, athletes seek out better pay, endorsements, a less competitive field, or better-run sports programs, but many Africans are choosing another country to represent because their own country can’t support them. Quartz explains:

In Kenya, there’s a lot to be desired in how the country’s Olympic program is run, which has been glaringly obvious in the Rio Games. Self-taught javelin thrower Julius Yego, who has been openly critical of Kenya’s treatment of its athletes, arrived at the airport on Aug. 7 to find Kenya’s Olympic committee hadn’t booked a ticket for him. Only after the rest of the Kenyan team refused to board was he allowed to fly.

Kenyan coach John Anzrah was sent home by Olympic officials after he used a runner’s credentials to cop the dining hall meal being served to athletes in the off-limits athletes’ village. “We were operating in Rio like beggars, cooking for ourselves in a private house, but our athletes always helped us get food,” he told Reuters this week.

Nike, the official sponsor of the Kenyan Olympic team, has complained that much of the athletic gear they issued for the team appears to have gone missing. Deputy vice president of Kenya William Ruto has called for a probe into the missing kit.

And although Bahrain is just one of the non-African countries adopting Africans, this is how many Africans have made their team, thanks to OkayAfrica:

Their athletics men’s team has four athletes born in Kenya, three in Ethiopia, one in Nigeria, one in Morocco and none in Bahrain. Their women’s team also features three athletes born in Ethiopia, another three in Nigeria, one in Kenya and none born in Bahrain (although one of those born in Nigeria is half-Bahraini).

Unfortunately, Africa’s notorious corruption and failure to uphold the importance of its civilians has resulted in a very messy business that will take a long time to overcome.

Until then our athletes deserve to find better opportunities, I guess?

[source:qz&okayafrica]