World Athletics blocks Turkey’s athlete nationality switch request

World Athletics – (Web Desk) – World Athletics has turned down requests from 11 top athletes who wanted to compete for Turkey, dealing a serious blow to the country’s hopes of winning medals at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Among those rejected were four Jamaican stars, including Roje Stona, who won the men’s discus gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, along with five Kenyan athletes. One of the most notable names on the list was Brigid Kosgei, who once held the world record in the women’s marathon.

The complete list also featured Kosgei’s fellow Kenyans — Catherine Relin, Amanang’ole, Brian Kibor, Ronald Kwemoi, and Nelvin Jepkemboi — as well as Jamaicans Rajindra Campbell, Jaydon Hibbert, and Wayne Pinnock, Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili, and Russian athlete Sophia Yakushina.

Turkey had been quietly building a strategy to lure world-class athletes by offering them long-term financial deals, all in the hope of stacking up gold medals on home soil at the 2028 Games.

This ambitious plan was largely sparked by Turkey’s disappointing showing at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the country walked away without a single gold medal despite collecting eight medals overall across various sports.

However, World Athletics put its foot down, ruling that approving these transfers would go against the core principles and values that the sport’s eligibility and nationality transfer rules are built upon.

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A World Athletics panel found that the applications “formed part of a coordinated recruitment strategy led by the Turkiye government acting through a wholly owned and financed government club”.

Their aim, track and field’s body said, was “to attract overseas athletes through lucrative contracts, with the aim of facilitating transfers of allegiance and enabling those athletes to represent Turkiye at future international competitions, including the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games”.

“Given the common features across the applications, the panel assessed them together and determined that such an approach is inconsistent with the core principles of the regulations.

“These principles are designed to safeguard the credibility of international competition, encourage member federations to invest in the development of domestic talent and maintain confidence among athletes that national teams are not primarily assembled through external recruitment.”

World Athletics concluded: “As a result of the decisions, the athletes are not eligible to represent Turkiye in national representative competitions or other relevant international events.”