The recent visa denial of Ethiopian athletes looking to compete in the World Athletics Cross Country Championship events sheds a negative light on future athletic events hosted by the United States.
Later this year, athletes …and fans… from all over the world will be attempting to enter the United States for the World Cup events.
The list of countries whose citizens have been banned from entering the U.S. is constantly growing; despite the White House’s promise that athletes and people associated with the team are exempt from the ban and will be allowed to enter the U.S. for sporting events.
Ethiopian officials stated that they have been given no reason for why their visas were denied even though all the proper paperwork was submitted.
Currently Ethiopia holds the record for the longest medal streak in the event; but with the denial of athletes to enter the country for the competition in Tallahassee, Florida; that streak is in serious danger of ending. An U20 male has won the race every year since 1982 and an U20 female has won every year since 1990.
Fourteen of the U20 – under 20 (years old) team had their visa denied by the American embassy in Addis Ababa. Only one U20 male and three U20 females were allowed to make the trip. The team competition requires four athletes to compete.
A spokesperson for Visit Tallahassee stated that Ethiopia is not the only country experiencing visa issues; adding a “visa manager” working to clear up visa issues. The World Athletics competition begins Saturday, January 10.
According to Marathon Handbook the “Ethiopian Athletics Federation general secretary Amensisa Kebede said the federation submitted 34 visa applications on Dec. 12 and, after receiving denials, attempted a second round of applications on Dec. 30, only to be rejected again.”
Senior spots have been filled out using athletes who already held a valid U.S. visa and will be able to field a full team for the men, women, and mixed teams.
One of the U20 women who did make the trip is Marta Alemayo who at 17 is looking to be just the fourth woman in history to win a World U20 cross country title back-to-back.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe spoke on the visa issue saying, “visas – always a challenge anywhere in the world. Particularly complicated in the US at the moment, we know that. We have to navigate our way through this. The USOPC is being very helpful, as they were in Eugene a couple of years ago when we had the World Championships there. All I can tell you is we are aware of the situation and it’s obviously very important that if you have a World Cross Country Championships, you have Ethiopia there. Believe me, that has not gone unnoticed, but there is work already underway in that.”