Olympics and Immigration

August 15, 2024
Linda M Kaplan

The U.S. topped the medal table at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Both the U.S. and China won 40 Gold Medals, but the U.S. won 44 silver medals while China won 27 silvers. 

In June I wrote a blog  about the economic benefits that immigrants bring to the U.S.  With the Olympics just concluded I thought it would be interesting to see how immigration contributed to the U.S. doing so well in Paris. George Mason University is home to the Institute for Immigration Research. Marissa Kiss, PhD who is a  Postdoctoral Research Fellow at this institute researched and  wrote an article entitled Foreign-Born and Second-Generation Born Immigrants Athletics Round out Team USA. 

In her article, Dr. Kiss highlighted the fact that 3.7% of  the 2024 Team USA athletes are foreign born from 16 different countries and competed in 11 different sports. She found that almost a third of the foreign-born athletes were born in European countries . One-fifth of the Team were from Africa and one-fifth were born in Asia.

Some of the foreign-born athletes had dual citizenship. Some came to the U.S. as refugees. Others came to the U.S. for sports and became citizens. This includes Leonard Korir from Kenya who came to the U.S. for college. He has served the U.S not just in the Olympics but also joined the U.S. Army. 

 In addition to the foreign-born athletes, 7 % of the athletes are children of immigrant parents. While they were born in the U.S., their parents were born elsewhere. Some of their parents came to the U.S. for an education or as refugees. Together the foreign-born athletes and the children of immigrant parents were 10% of Team USA.

The Paris Olympics also included the 2024 Refugee Olympic Team. This team included athletes displaced by war, violence, or political persecution. This team first competed in 2016 with 10 athletes. This year the Refugee Team had 36 athletes from Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Cuba, Eritrea, Sudan, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and Venezuela. Almost one-third of the refugee team were women. Three of the 36 on the team competed in 2020 for their home countries (Cuba, Afghanistan, and Iran) but have since applied for asylum and now compete on the Refugee team. 

The Olympics is just one example of  immigrants contributing to the U.S. Dr. Kiss concluded her research article with the following: “ The welcoming spirit of immigrants and refugees to the United States and other countries around the world has been instrumental in providing a sanctuary to thousands and millions of displaced individuals. Many of these immigrants and refugees come to their host countries, work hard, contribute, and give back to their local community, become naturalized citizens and sometimes represent their new nation on a global scale, including as Olympians.”

Linda M Kaplan
Latest posts by Linda M Kaplan (see all)