World Athletics has rejected 11 applications by athletes seeking to switch their national allegiance to Turkey, ruling that the transfers were part of a government-led recruitment strategy designed to build a stronger Turkish team for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The sport's governing body said its Nationality Review Panel found that the applications compromised eligibility rules and threatened the integrity of international competition.
The blocked transfers involved athletes from four countries: five Kenyans, including former women's marathon world record holder Brigid Kosgei; four Jamaicans, including Olympic discus gold medallist Roje Stona and Olympic shot put bronze medallist Rajindra Campbell; Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili; and Russian heptathlete Sophia Yakushina. World Athletics said the applications were linked to a wholly-owned and government-financed Turkish athletics club that had offered athletes lucrative contracts specifically to facilitate allegiance transfers and future international representation for Turkey.
The decision drew praise from within the athletics community. Solomon Ogba, a former president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, welcomed the ruling as a victory for developing countries that invest heavily in nurturing talent from youth level. He argued that wealthy nations using financial incentives to poach athletes nurtured elsewhere was "unfair and unjust," pointing to stars such as Eliud Kipchoge and Usain Bolt as examples of athletes who achieved greatness without switching national allegiance. World Athletics president Sebastian Coe tightened transfer regulations in 2019, at the time describing certain cases of young athletes switching allegiance as akin to human trafficking.
Turkey has a history of recruiting foreign-born athletes for international competition. Its team at the 2016 European Championships featured athletes originally from Kenya, Jamaica, Ethiopia, Cuba and several other countries. More broadly, the practice is not unique to Turkey — Gulf states such as Qatar and Bahrain have also used financial incentives to attract overseas talent. Winfred Yavi, for example, switched allegiance from Kenya to Bahrain at the age of 15 and went on to win Olympic and world gold medals in the 3,000-metre steeplechase.
World Athletics clarified that the ruling does not prevent any of the 11 athletes from competing in one-day meetings or road races in a personal or club capacity, nor from continuing to live and train in Turkey. However, they remain ineligible to represent Turkey at the Olympics, World Championships, or other major international competitions. The decision underscores growing pressure on global sports governance to balance athlete freedom of movement with the protection of competitive integrity and the interests of smaller, talent-producing nations.