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Buying Athletes/Swimmers?

Paul Smith
As seen on Swiminfo today.......so much for citizenship eh?! And we complain about masters "superteams"! Draganja Changing Allegiances to Qatar ZAGREB, Croatia, December 7. WHILE South Africa’s Roland Schoeman has spurned an offer to switch his allegiance to Qatar, the same cannot be said for Croatian Duje Draganja. The sprint sensation, a 24-year-old, recently accepted a lucrative offer to swim for the Middle Eastern nation, which has been chasing high-profile athletes by offering significant sums of money. Before accepting the offer from Qatar, which is believed to be at least $1 million, Draganja gave Croatian swimming officials the opportunity to keep him swimming under his homeland’s flag. Ultimately, though, the Arab nation won out and Draganja is expected to race for Qatar at next year’s World Short Course Championships in Shanghai, China.
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  • Frank, I'm not so sure. The bigger issue here is what stand the Olympic committee will take (if any), or if it can take fr countries who start "buying" athletes to compete in this event. What's to stop Qatar from "recruiting" Brunelli? The lines between Pro and amateur sports have long since blurred, but as far as I know the Olympics continue to be competition between countries.......like some said earlier on here, if not then what anthem should the be playing at the awards ceremony? My own two cents.......if your going to represent a country in THIS event then you need to be a citizen of that country.
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  • Frank, I'm not so sure. The bigger issue here is what stand the Olympic committee will take (if any), or if it can take fr countries who start "buying" athletes to compete in this event. What's to stop Qatar from "recruiting" Brunelli? The lines between Pro and amateur sports have long since blurred, but as far as I know the Olympics continue to be competition between countries.......like some said earlier on here, if not then what anthem should the be playing at the awards ceremony? My own two cents.......if your going to represent a country in THIS event then you need to be a citizen of that country.
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