访谈录 2008-08-24&08-26 不是我不爱国（在线收听）

A remarkable athlete, you know the athletes go to the Olympics representing their countries, right? That’s clear from the parade of nations in the opening ceremony to the playing of the national anthem for gold medal winners. But Stephanie Sy reports the definition of what country an athlete belongs to is getting just a bit blurry.

The only thing Russian about Becky Hammon is her fanny pack.  Everything else is apple-pie American. 

 “You know, I stand in honor of my country. Always my hand will be across my chest. I am one of those people that still believe the pledge of allegiance should be said in school every morning.”

 But tomorrow the WNBA player from South Dakota will put a jersey on for Russia and play against the United States. Playing for an old Cold War enemy and being a formidable point guard, Hammon has borne the brunt of criticism. But she is among countless athletes playing for other nations at the Games.

“Pretty sure, the Canadian track and field teams are all from Nigeria.".

"Azerbaijan imports a lot Korean girls, and they've got to marry to Azerbaijanis.”

A French man won Togo’s first gold medal after only being to the African nation once. When people looked to the Russia versus Georgia beach volleyball game for political metaphors, they realized the Georgian players were actually Brazilian. And the entire US table tennis team is from China, not to mention the woman’s volleyball coach. 33 foreign-born athletes are on team USA.

The Olympics have come to represent universal values of peace and friendship. But at the end of the day, it is a competition between nations. And some say those athletes that choose to play for other countries are traitors.

If you play in this country, live in this country, um, grow up in the heartlands, you know, and you put on a Russian uniform, you are not a patriotic person in my mind.

 But Hammon says she did everything she could to get on the US team, it still wasn’t enough. When it became a choice between participating in the world’s greatest sporting event and watching from the sidelines, it was easy for a 31-year-old Hammon.

If I was 26, 25, I probably wouldn't have made this decision to play for Russia, I would have held out and hoped that United States would have come back around.

So Hammon chased her dream. There’s nothing more American than that, even if she had to chase it all the way to Russia.