The U.S. Olympic team is being bolstered by a crucial group of athletes: immigrants

A World Judo bronze medalist from Cuba who returned to the sport after moving to America. The son of a pioneer in the new Olympic sport of breaking who came to the U.S. after a grueling journey through the desert. Basketball and track and field athletes who came to the U.S. for college and professional sports and decided to represent their new country internationally.

Many of the 594 athletes selected for the U.S. Olympic team this summer are immigrants or children of immigrants. All have chosen to represent a country in the grip of a movement that would limit their ability to enter or remain there, even through legal means.

An analysis by George Mason University’s Institute for Immigration Research found that 3.7 percent of the athletes on this year’s U.S. Olympic team were born abroad, while more than 7 percent are children of immigrants or second-generation immigrants.

Some athletes come to the U.S. specifically for the sport and then become citizens. That’s a common path in track and field—Leonard Korir is one of many African distance runners who have come to the U.S. for college and ended up representing his adopted country. In Korir’s case, his national service isn’t limited to track; he’s also enlisted in the U.S. Army.

But even in a sport like basketball, long dominated by American athletes, immigrants can emerge on the roster. Joel Embiid was born and raised in Cameroon before coming to the U.S. as a high school student to pursue a basketball career.

Other foreign-born athletes have joined Team USA for a variety of reasons, from athletic opportunities to terrifying escapes from dangerous situations in their native countries:

Abdihamid Nur (athletics): The long-distance runner was born in Somalia, but his family didn’t stay there much longer after his birth. They fled to Kenya, then lived in Egypt for a few years before coming to the US.

Maria Laborde (judo): Many American sports have athletes who left Cuba in search of greater opportunities in life and sport, and judo is no exception. Laborde won a bronze medal at the 2014 World Championships while competing for Cuba. But at another competition later that year in Mexico, Laborde left the Cuban delegation and requested asylum, giving up a likely spot in the 2016 Olympics, along with everything she knew from home.

Weini Kelati (athletics): Oregon’s Hayward Field is a legendary venue in track and field, and one that will always have special meaning for Kelati. After representing Eritrea at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Hayward, Kelati sought asylum. She moved to Virginia, secured a scholarship to the University of New Mexico, and received her citizenship just before the 2021 Olympic trials, held at Hayward Field. She didn’t make the team that year, but returned to Hayward for this year’s trials and won a thrilling 10,000m race in which the lead changed hands several times on the final lap.

Steffen Peters (equestrian sports): When the dressage specialist couldn’t get his citizenship in time to compete for the United States in the 1992 Olympics, U.S. team official Fiona Baan made what, in retrospect, is one of the understatements of the 20th century. She told the Los Angeles Times, “He’s a young guy and I’m sure we’ll see him in the future.” This summer, Peters competed in his sixth Olympics at age 59.

Beiwen Zhang (badminton): Born in China, she also represented Singapore internationally before moving to the US and continuing her career, which has seen her reach the top 10 worldwide several times in recent years.

Some athletes’ parents came to the US as refugees

Naomi Girma (football), Ethiopia: In 1977, a repressive regime seized power in Ethiopia, leading to civil war and famine. Girma Aweke, then a teenager, joined a secret opposition movement until conditions deteriorated to the point that he fled, at one point relying on a family of strangers to care for him while he suffered from malaria, eventually ending up in Sudan, where he was selected for a resettlement program that took him to San Francisco. He worked in restaurants, paid his way through university and married a fellow Ethiopian. Their daughter, Naomi Girma, inherited her father’s love of football and became one of the game’s most reliable central defenders. She was ranked 36th in The Guardian’s most recent list of the world’s 100 best female footballers.

Yared Nuguse (athletics), Ethiopia: Alem Nuguse was a teacher in Ethiopia in the early 1980s until he was imprisoned. After his release, he followed a similar path to Girma Aweke, moving to Sudan and then on to the United States, where he married someone from the same region of Ethiopia. Their son, Yared, was scheduled to compete in Tokyo in 2021 but had to withdraw from the Games due to a quadriceps injury. He is returning as a medal contender, currently ranked second in the world in the 1500m.

Victor Montalvo (interrupting), Mexico: Victor and Hector Bermudez were prominent breakdancers in Mexico who escaped poverty and gang violence by hiking through the Chihuahuan Desert. A few years later, after settling in the United States, they showed their kids a few moves. Victor’s son, Victor Montalvo, was so inspired that he went on to become one of the best in the world, winning the 2002 World Games competition and the 2023 World Championship.

Lilia Vu (golf), Vietnam: Vu’s grandfather, Dinh Du, spent months building a makeshift boat to get his family and dozens of others out of Vietnam. Just as the boat began to leak, Du’s flares attracted the attention of a U.S. Navy ship, which rescued everyone aboard.