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Wanted: country to represent Americans find opportunity, warm receptions abroad
EDMONTON, Alberta -- Now here is insult added to injury. On Wednesday night at the track and field world championships, the United States failed to place any athletes in the final of the men's 400-meter hurdles, which will be run Friday night at Commonwealth Stadium. It is the first time in history that the U.S. won't have at least one runner competing in the final of a major championship -- Olympics or world championships. Angelo Taylor, who won the Sydney Olympic gold medal while running a gritty race out of Lane 1 (from where it is almost impossible to win any serious race), was suffering from sinus and stomach problems and caught the 10th (final) hurdle with his trail leg to finish in a struggling 49.23, far behind the qualifiers. His U.S. teammates caught tough lanes and also didn't advance: Calvin Davis ran a grinding 48.99 out of Lane 1 and James Carter turned in a too-fast-early 49.38 from Lane 7. This would be painful enough, except that one of the favorites for the final is a 23-year-old kid who was born in New York, raised in San Diego, competed for USC, and in Edmonton wears the singlet of ... the Dominican Republic. His name is Felix Sanchez, and in many ways he is as American as the Whopper. His Dominican parents (now divorced) were living in New York when Felix was born; he moved to San Diego at age two. While he has made many visits to the Dominican Republic, he has always lived in the United States and is, of course, a U.S. citizen. Sanchez began running track as a sophomore at University City High in San Diego after he broke his arm wrestling, and he moved to the hurdles when academic problems thinned the hurdles ranks on his team. He went first to a junior college and then to USC. Standing in the middle of a small group of reporters after winning his semifinal, Sanchez was asked if he ever considered running for the United States. "No," he said. "I wasn't born in the Dominican, but I am full-blooded Dominican; both my parents are Dominican. I never wanted to run for the United States." It is fair to take Sanchez, a delightful young guy, on his word at this. It is also useful to point out that Sanchez tried to qualify for the U.S. team that would go to the 1999 worlds but finished out of the money in sixth place. Two months before that he had been interviewed by a Spanish-language newspaper in Los Angeles. The reporter told some people who work for the Los Angeles Dodgers and have Dominican connections about Sanchez, and shortly after the U.S. trials he was a member of the Dominican team. "It was no problem," Sanchez said. It's also no problem avoiding annual bloodlettings with the likes of Taylor and Carter at U.S. championships. It's wonderful that Sanchez chooses to run for the Dominican Republic and it's even cool that he's saying he does it because he wants to. But let's face it: Lack of competition is nice. U.S.-trained athletes competing for other nations is nothing new. Sprinter/long jumper Kareem Streete-Thompson was given the opportunity to compete for the Cayman Islands, his mother's birth country, but in '95 chose to represent the U.S. After finishing third in the U.S. nationals that year, behind Carl Lewis and Mike Powell, Streete-Thompson showed up in Atlanta a year later with a Cayman singlet and has worn one ever since. Ato Boldon, a Trinidadian who has lived in the U.S. since age 14 and is, according to training partner Jon Drummond, "more American than all of us," was once approached by representatives of USA Track & Field during the American sprint malaise of 1993-'96 and asked if he would consider running for the U.S. "Why would I want to do that?" Boldon asked. And it's a damn good question.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Tim Layden covers track and field for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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