World Athletics denies 11 athletes permission to change nationality to Turkiye

World Athletics on Thursday refused the applications of 11 elite athletes seeking to transfer their allegiance to Turkey in a hammer blow to the country’s medal chances at the 2028 Olympics.

Four top Jamaicans, including 2024 Olympic men’s discus gold medallist Roje Stona, and a quintet of Kenyans, among them former women’s marathon World Record-holder Brigid Kosgei, were among the 11 concerned.

The full list included Kosgei’s compatriots Catherine Relin (Selin Can) Amanang’ole, Brian Kibor, Ronald Kwemoi and Nelvin (Can) Jepkemboi, Stona’s fellow Jamaicans Rajindra Campbell, Jaydon Hibbert and Wayne Pinnock, Nigeria’s Favour Ofili and Russian Sophia Yakushina.

Turkey had been offering long-term financial support to recruit foreign track and field stars with the aim of winning a host of gold medals at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The move was prompted by Turkye’s dire performance at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, where it failed to win a single gold among its eight medals across all sports.

But World Athletics deemed otherwise, saying that approval of the applications “would impinge upon and compromise the imperatives” underlying eligibility rules and transfer of allegiance regulations.

Kenya’s former marathon World Record-holder Brigid Kosgei among those who had applied. | Photo Credit: AFP

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.”

Published on Apr 16, 2026

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