Athletes using the Olympics to defect from their countries of birth is fairly commonplace. Whereas in the past it was driven by political unrest and wars in the countries of the defectors, recently it is often motivated by the pursuit of living under better economic conditions.
Julius Ssekitoleko, a Ugandan national who had hoped to participate in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games before falling short of qualification, has become the latest in a long list of athletes who use the trip to the summer Games as an escape route from their countries.
Marie Provaznikova, the Czechoslovakian women’s gymnastics team coach, refused to return home after her team won gold at the Games. Czechoslovakia had become a satellite of the Soviet Union and Provaznikova cited a lack of “freedom of speech, of the press or of assembly” as the reason for absconding. After a few months’ stay in England, she moved to the US where she lived for the rest of her life, teaching physical education. She died in 1992 at the age of 100.
During the 1996 Games in Atlanta in the US, Afghanistan’s flag bearer, boxer Jawid Aman Mukhamad, sought asylum in Canada. Drusille Ngako, a reserve goalkeeper for the women’s soccer team, was the first to disappear after she had failed to make the final 18-person squad for the Games.
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