sporting nationality
{{Short description|Term in international sport}}
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Nationality in sporting events describes the affiliation of a participant in an international sporting event with one or more nations, typically as a member or potential member of a national team. The participant's sporting nationality is often the same as their citizenship at birth, but many sports have rules that allow participants to change nationalities, add a nationality, or represent a country to which they have limited ties through birth or ancestry.
A participant in a sporting event may have a sporting nationality without necessarily being a member of a national team.
Athletics
In athletics, World Athletics eligibility rules{{cite web|url=https://worldathletics.org/download/download?filename=62d1cb82-b26f-4f80-af11-1942e6dab513.pdf&urlslug=C3.3%20-%20Eligibility%20Rules|publisher=IAAF|website=worldathletics.org|title=Eligibility Rules|at=4. Eligibility to Represent a Member Federation|access-date=10 February 2025}} define which member nation or nations an athlete may represent. Eligibility to represent a nation typically derives from legal citizenship, attained either through birth of the participant or a recent ancestor, or through residence, marriage, or other means. World Athletics also maintains eligibility rules related to new countries, countries that no longer exist, or countries that change their affiliation with the organization, and reviews requests for transfers of allegiance made by athletes. There is typically a multi-year waiting period for athletes who request a transfer of allegiance.
Association football
{{main|FIFA eligibility rules}}
In association football, FIFA maintains eligibility rules for participants in international competitions. In 2004, FIFA amended its wider policy on international eligibility, ruling that players must be able to demonstrate a "clear connection" to a country that they had not been born in but wished to represent. This ruling explicitly stated that, in such scenarios, the player must have at least one parent or grandparent who was born in that country, or the player must have been resident in that country for at least two years.{{cite web|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/africa/3523266.stm|title=Fifa rules on eligibility|date=18 March 2004|access-date=12 February 2015|website=BBC Sport}} The residency requirement for players lacking birth or ancestral connections with a specific country was extended from two to five years in 2008.{{cite news|url= http://redsports.sg/2008/11/27/qiu-li-football/|title=National footballer Qiu Li gets tackled from behind by new FIFA law|date=27 November 2008|access-date=4 May 2012|publisher=redsports.sg}}
Equestrian
Olympic Games
Participants in the Olympic Games must be a national of the country (formally, the National Olympic Committee) that they are representing at the Games.{{cite web|url=https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/General/EN-Olympic-Charter.pdf|publisher=International Olympic Committee|title=Olympic Charter|website=olympics.com|at=41 Nationality of competitors|date=2025|access-date=10 February 2025}} Like World Athletics, the International Olympic Committee's charter contains provisions for participants to change allegiances, and rules related to changes in the national status of states and territories.
Rugby
In addition to rules related to birth and biological ancestry, World Rugby, the governing body for rugby union, specifies that if a player has been legally adopted under the laws of the relevant country, descent is traced through the adoptive parent(s).{{cite web|url=https://www.worldrugby.org/handbook/regulations/reg-8/explanatory-guidelines |title=Regulation 8 Explanatory Guidelines |website=World Rugby |date=21 April 2016 |access-date=14 May 2018}}
Change of nationality
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Change of nationality by participants in international sporting events has been the subject of academic study.{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/13621025.2018.1477921 |title=Nationality swapping in the Olympic field: Towards the marketization of citizenship? |date=2018 |last1=Jansen |first1=Joost |last2=Oonk |first2=Gijsbert |last3=Engbersen |first3=Godfried |journal=Citizenship Studies |volume=22 |issue=5 |pages=523–539 }}{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/14608944.2020.1815421 |title=Sport and nationality: Towards thick and thin forms of citizenship |date=2022 |last1=Oonk |first1=Gijsbert |journal=National Identities |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=197–215 |bibcode=2022NatId..24..197O }}{{cite journal|doi=10.2979/africatoday.57.2.26 |title=Reimagining Sports: African Athletes, Defection, and Ambiguous Citizenship |date=2010 |last1=Adjaye|first=Joseph K. |journal=Africa Today |volume=57 |issue=2 |page=26 }}{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/19406940.2014.885910 |title=Investigating the global productivity effects of highly skilled labour migration: How immigrant athletes impact Olympic medal counts |date=2014 |last1=Horowitz |first1=Jonathan |last2=McDaniel |first2=Stephen R. |journal=International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics |pages= 19–42|volume= 7|issue=1 }}{{cite journal|doi=10.1186/s40878-017-0054-2|doi-access=free |title=Have the Olympic Games become more migratory? A comparative historical perspective |date=2017 |last1=Jansen |first1=Joost |last2=Engbersen |first2=Godfried |journal=Comparative Migration Studies |volume=5 |issue=1 |page=11 |pmid=28758068 |pmc=5506509 |bibcode=2017CmpMS...5...11J }}{{cite journal|jstor=41149587 |title=Picking Winners: Olympic Citizenship and the Global Race for Talent |last1=Shachar |first1=Ayelet |journal=The Yale Law Journal |date=2011 |volume=120 |issue=8 |pages=2088–2139 }}{{cite book|doi=10.1017/CBO9781139696654.029 |chapter=The end of Olympic nationality |title=Allegiance and Identity in a Globalised World |date=2014 |last1=Spiro |first1=Peter J. |pages=478–496 |isbn=978-1-139-69665-4|editor1-first=Fiona|editor1-last= Jenkins
|editor2-first=Mark |editor2-last=Nolan|editor3-first=Kim|editor3-last= Rubenstein }}
Changing nationalities can often be done by obtaining citizenship in the new country, waiting a specified period, and gaining approval from the relevant national federation or other governing body for a sport.{{Cite web |title=Can Olympic athletes change nationalities? |url=https://www.globalsportsadvocates.com/faqs/how-olympic-athletes-can-change-the-country-they-represent.cfm |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=Global Sports Advocates, LLC |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Changing countries? |url=https://worldathletics.org/news/news/changing-countries |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250320074644/https://worldathletics.org/news/news/changing-countries |archive-date=2025-03-20 |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=worldathletics.org |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Worster |first=William Thomas |date=2024 |editor-last=Boillet |editor-first=Véronique |editor2-last=Weerts |editor2-first=Sophie |editor3-last=Ziegler |editor3-first=Andreas R. |title=Respecting the Right to Nationality in International Sport |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-56452-9_7 |journal=Sports and Human Rights |language=en |location=Cham |publisher=Springer Nature Switzerland |pages=149–186 |doi=10.1007/978-3-031-56452-9_7 |isbn=978-3-031-56452-9}}