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NY Times Magazine article about Cheserek's citizenship hopes

Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2016 9:33 pm
by greenyellow
New York Times Magazine has a great article about Edward Cheserek's pursuit of US citizenship. He was hoping to get his citizenship in time for the US Olympic Trials but the bureaucracy of it stopped him. He also couldn't compete for Kenya's team because of how stacked their Olympic trials are in the events he runs. If the laws and the process stays as it is, he likely won't be getting his citizenship until after the 2020 games and he'd be nearing the end of peak athletic years, which is a shame because of how talented he is.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/19/magaz ... o.html?hpw

Re: NY Times Magazine article about Cheserek's citizenship h

Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2016 5:29 am
by StevensTechU
re: Beaurocracy, I hear you. One of my good friends didn't get US citizenship until right after college despite living in Oregon from age 4 through university (she also happens to be one of the 22 Ducks that competed in Rio). American people don't want becoming an American citizen to be easy for people born elsewhere, so the reality is that the blame lies on the people around us, not on 'bureaucracy.' I'm for it becoming easier and more streamlined, but opposed to making special exceptions for athletes, personally.

Re: NY Times Magazine article about Cheserek's citizenship h

Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2016 10:04 pm
by greenyellow
StevensTechU wrote:re: Beaurocracy, I hear you. One of my good friends didn't get US citizenship until right after college despite living in Oregon from age 4 through university (she also happens to be one of the 22 Ducks that competed in Rio). American people don't want becoming an American citizen to be easy for people born elsewhere, so the reality is that the blame lies on the people around us, not on 'bureaucracy.' I'm for it becoming easier and more streamlined, but opposed to making special exceptions for athletes, personally.
Who are you talking about? I'm not aware of any female Duck athletes in Rio who were from the state.

Re: NY Times Magazine article about Cheserek's citizenship h

Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2016 10:45 pm
by pudgejeff
greenyellow wrote:
StevensTechU wrote:re: Beaurocracy, I hear you. One of my good friends didn't get US citizenship until right after college despite living in Oregon from age 4 through university (she also happens to be one of the 22 Ducks that competed in Rio). American people don't want becoming an American citizen to be easy for people born elsewhere, so the reality is that the blame lies on the people around us, not on 'bureaucracy.' I'm for it becoming easier and more streamlined, but opposed to making special exceptions for athletes, personally.
Who are you talking about? I'm not aware of any female Duck athletes in Rio who were from the state.
Claire Michel I assume.

Re: NY Times Magazine article about Cheserek's citizenship h

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2016 6:37 am
by StevensTechU
pudgejeff wrote:
Claire Michel I assume.
Yep. K-12 all in Clackamas, and college at UofO.

Re: NY Times Magazine article about Cheserek's citizenship h

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2016 2:32 pm
by greenyellow
pudgejeff wrote:
greenyellow wrote:
StevensTechU wrote:re: Beaurocracy, I hear you. One of my good friends didn't get US citizenship until right after college despite living in Oregon from age 4 through university (she also happens to be one of the 22 Ducks that competed in Rio). American people don't want becoming an American citizen to be easy for people born elsewhere, so the reality is that the blame lies on the people around us, not on 'bureaucracy.' I'm for it becoming easier and more streamlined, but opposed to making special exceptions for athletes, personally.
Who are you talking about? I'm not aware of any female Duck athletes in Rio who were from the state.
Claire Michel I assume.
Sure looks like it. Thought she had grown up entirely in Belgium but that's not the case after looking at his bio a bit.

Re: NY Times Magazine article about Cheserek's citizenship h

Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2016 6:50 am
by StevensTechU
greenyellow wrote: Sure looks like it. Thought she had grown up entirely in Belgium but that's not the case after looking at his bio a bit.
Haha, most definitely not. Her dad works for Blount International which is based in Milwaukie, so the family moved to Oregon when she was starting kindergarten. I still remember when she was over at my house in Eugene and was like "I became a U.S. citizen on Friday," because it just didn't seem like it should've taken so long for somebody I'd literally grown up with.

Anywho, her mom swam in the Olympics for Belgium back in the 80's so the Olympics has been a dream of hers since we were in high school (at least). Was awesome that she made it.