Giovanni Lanaro was born in Los Angeles, grew up in La Puente, attended Cal State Fullerton, and coaches and trains at Mt. San Antonio College. Yet, when the torch is lighted during opening ceremonies this summer at the Beijing Olympics, the world's sixth-ranked pole vaulter will be with Mexico, not the United States.
"I will always compete for Mexico," said Lanaro, whose mother was born there. "I will never compete for any other country."
He is hardly alone in choosing to compete for the land of his heritage over the place of his birth -- a growing practice in recent years as the Mexican American population has surged past 28 million, swelling the eligible talent pool that Mexican sports officials have tapped occasionally.
Five of the nine boxers on Mexico's national team are from the U.S., as are a wrestler, a women's basketball player and two members of last summer's Pan American Games water polo team.
"My whole family's proud. What's wrong with being proud about competing for Mexico?" said Lanaro, who has cleared 19 feet this year and is Mexico's best hope for a track and field medal in Beijing. "I don't see anything wrong with it."
Others are critical, however, with those in the U.S. arguing that American athletes who compete for Mexico are turning their back on the country that trained them in exchange for an easier path to the Olympics. And in Mexico, some coaches and athletes have grown tired of "foreigners" taking opportunities away from locals.
"In my opinion, yes, it's controversial, a little unethical," said German Silva, a two-time Olympian and now a top Mexican distance-running coach.
But it is legal. In fact, top athletes crossing borders to enhance their Olympic prospects are part of a well-established pattern that involves many nations and events. Four years ago at Athens, Americans of Greek descent took the field for the host nation's baseball team, a Chinese-born table tennis player competed for the United States and a Jamaican woman sprinted for Slovenia.
"Freedom of choice is one of the values our country stands for," said Darryl Seibel, chief communications officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee. "And we're not going to stand in the way of someone who wants to compete for another country."
The U.S. has also benefited from foreign-born athletes changing allegiances: 1,500-meter runner Bernard Lagat and marathoner Khalid Khannouchi were born in Africa, yet now hold U.S. records. And national gymnastics champions Nastia Liukin and Alexander Artemev are from the former Soviet Union.
