the waiver “would be consistent with the spirit of cooperation and international goodwill that exists between our two nations.” There is speculation that China was worried denying this waiver could give them negative publicity at the time they were trying to get the 2008 Beijing bid, after losing to Sydney in 2000 by two votes (Longman). China may not have realized it, but by allowing Chen to participate for the United States, they were allowing her to be a cosmopolitan citizen. Maybe they did not want to let her compete because they did not want her to win a medal for the United States, but even if she had won a medal, that medal would belong to her and would be earned by her, not by the United States. Although not everyone is happy that many immigrant athletes compete for the United States, it seems to be a larger, more corrupt problem elsewhere. Even without any new immigrant athletes, it is likely that the United States would still win their fair share of medals, but countries like Bahrain and Qatar are different cases. These countries are small and rich with oil, and have started luring athletes with millions of dollars so they can get more medals (Larmer). While there is nothing in the Olympic Charter explicitly opposing this practice, it certainly seems to go against the cosmopolitan ideals encouraged in the charter. It is acceptable for athletes to immigrate to and compete in other nations if they are doing it as an opportunity to compete, not to win and make money. One of the earliest cases of switching citizenship to participate in the Olympics was South African runner Zola Budd. There was an apartheid era ban on the Olympics in South Africa, so Budd immigrated to Britain in order to participate in the 1984 Olympic Games. Budd qualified for British citizenship because her grandfather was born there, but people accused the government and the Daily Mail of expediting the process for her. Although there were additional reasons, like the fact that Budd had family in South Africa and plans to eventually return, Budd “refused to condemn white minority rule on the grounds that she was a sportswoman, not a politician.” Still, Budd said that her time in Britain from 1984 to 1988 was filled with protestors and trauma. Carroll said, “she implies she represents only herself, not the rainbow nation, when competing. ‘I have always run for myself. It annoys people when I say it; running is something personal for me’” (Carroll). People may have called her selfish for that and generally disagree with her competing for Britain and not taking a stand against what her own country was doing, it all boiled down to the fact that she simply wanted to run. To her, the Olympics were not about competing for the nation she was born in, but the public expected her to take a stand against something that was just making it harder for her to do what she loved. Budd kept with the cosmopolitan tradition by not making political statements or gestures and running for herself, as an athlete of the world, even though the public wanted her to do otherwise.
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