After winning gold in Italy and becoming the first South American to earn a Winter Olympic medal, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen said: “I just hope that Brazilians look at this and truly understand that your difference is your superpower.”
Braathen, who represented Norway at the 2022 Winter Olympics and is the son of a Brazilian mother and a Norwegian father, is one of many athletes with mixed national ties. His victory has reignited a long-running debate about nationality and identity at the Games.
The five factors affecting Olympic nationality
Gijsbert Oonk, a professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam who studies global history, sport and athlete migration, says several stakeholders shape how nationality is understood in sport. Athletes themselves want to compete at the highest level but can be pulled between a sending country that invested in their development and a receiving country that gains prestige if the athlete wins medals. Sports federations seek fair rules for competition, while audiences want heroes they can identify with.
“There is a competition on who decides on belonging,” Oonk told DW. He noted states not only grant citizenship but increasingly offer fast-track procedures for athletes that ordinary applicants do not receive.
Karen McGarry, an associate professor at McMaster University specializing in the anthropology of sport, says the drive to compete is a decisive factor. Athletes often move to whichever country offers the best resources, incentives or chances of success. She points to ice dancer Laurence Fournier Beaudry, the current French Olympic champion, who has represented Canada, Denmark and France. Such moves can be seen by some fans as selfish and overly individualist, while others are indifferent.
The International Olympic Committee rules state that athletes who have represented one country at the Olympics or another major international competition must normally wait three years before representing a different nation. Yet shifting socio-economic and political contexts change how nationality is perceived in sport. Reports say over 30 Russian athletes who changed their sporting nationality competed for other countries in Italy this month.
McGarry added that heightened political tensions can make nations more insular and nationalistic, affecting media coverage and public responses to athletes’ national affiliations. Stories like that of Ukrainian Winter Olympian Vladyslav Heraskevych illustrate how geopolitics and sport can intersect.
Individual athlete at the forefront to start
Switching national allegiance is not new. More striking is that early Olympic thinking did not place nations at the center of competition. “In the beginning there were obviously no regulations,” Oonk said. The original Olympic ideal emphasized the individual athlete rather than national representation. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, co-founder of the IOC, famously said, “The true Olympic hero is, in my view, the individual adult male.” While that sentiment reflects outdated gender views, it highlights that early Olympics focused on individuals.
Over time, countries took on the role of selecting and sending athletes, bringing financial and political interests, and the symbolism of flag and anthem into the Games. The media-driven medal table, which emerged in the 1920s and 30s as the Olympics gained prominence and rivalry intensified between powers like the United States and Britain, further fuelled nation-based competition.
Even with increased migration from the 1980s onward and athletes training across borders, nationality remains a valuable cultural concept. McGarry says nationality and nationalism have domestic market value: Olympic sponsors often highlight athletes as “homegrown” to tap into nostalgia for national sporting icons.
Audience role not to be underestimated
Perception matters. How audiences view an athlete influences whether that athlete is embraced or rejected. “Audiences are very nationalized because they are fed by the national language and the national media,” Oonk observed, adding that national history education also shapes public views.
“The idea of nationality and belonging is kind of hyped into what in academic areas we call an imagined community. ‘I don’t know that sports person, but he’s one of us, he speaks my language… However, from a really academic and more philosophical point, who cares? These are individual athletes trying to do their best and trying to skate as fast or whatever as they can.'”
With many forces in play, debates about nationality at the Olympics are likely to persist. This moment may prompt a broader reflection on what it means to represent a country at the Games. While populism and exclusionary nationalism are on the rise in some political arenas, many people increasingly see their identities as cosmopolitan and fluid, including national affiliations, McGarry noted.
Edited: by Chuck Penfold