World Athletics has denied 11 athletes’ requests to transfer their allegiance to Turkey on the grounds that they were the result of a “coordinated recruitment strategy” by the Turkish government.
The World Athletics Nationality Review Panel said the government intended to attract athletes who currently represent other nations with lucrative contracts.
The requests came from five Kenyan athletes, including former women’s marathon world record holder Brigid Kosgei, and four Jamaicans, including Olympic discus gold medallist Roje Stona and Olympic shot put bronze medallist Rajindra Campbell.
Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili and Russian heptathlete Sophia Yakushina were the other two requests. Ofili, who finished sixth in the Paris 2024 Olympic 200m final, was not able to compete in last year’s World Championships after administrative errors by the Nigerian government, which meant she had not been entered.
World Athletics said in a statement on Thursday: “The panel found that the applications formed part of a coordinated recruitment strategy led by the Turkey government acting through a wholly-owned and financed government club, to attract overseas athletes through lucrative contracts, with the aim of facilitating transfers of allegiance and enabling those athletes to represent Turkey at future international competitions, including the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.”
World Athletics’ transfer of allegiance regulations include criteria aimed at ensuring a genuine connection between the athlete and the country they intend to represent, and to protect the integrity, credibility and development of the sport globally.
The rules were tightened in 2019, with World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe saying some cases of young athletes switching allegiance were akin to human trafficking.
Turkey’s team at the 2016 European Championships featured seven athletes from Kenya, two from Jamaica, an Ethiopian, a Cuban, a Ukrainian, a South African and an Azerbaijani.
Ramil Guliyev, representing Turkey after switching allegiance from Azerbaijan, won gold in the 200m at the 2017 World Championships.
Qatar has also used financial incentives to attract foreign athletes such as Egypt-born weightlifter Fares Ibrahim Hassouna, who won Qatar’s first-ever Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 2021.
Winfred Yavi switched allegiance from Kenya to Bahrain at the age of 15, going on to win Olympic and world gold medals in the 3,000 metres steeplechase.
World Athletics said its refusal to grant the allegiance transfer requests does not prevent the 11 athletes from competing in one-day meetings or road races in a personal or club capacity, or from living and training in Turkey.
Additional reporting by Reuters
