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World Athletics President Sebastian Coe speaks to the media ahead of the Gaborone 26 World Athletics Relays in Gaborone on May 1, 2026. (AFP)
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said he will remain “tough” on the issue of athletes switching nationality after his federation blocked a bid by top Jamaicans and Kenyans to move to Turkey.
The 2024 Olympic men’s discus champion Roje Stona from Jamaica, and a quintet of Kenyans including former women’s marathon world record-holder Brigid Kosgei, were among the 11 targeted by lucrative offers from Turkey.
“The concept is very simple, there should be a very clear understanding and philosophy that the country an athlete starts their career in is the country that they finish their career in,” Coe said in an interview on Friday ahead of the World Athletics Relays event in Botswana.
“And for global championships to have meaning and to have understanding, people need to witness championships where you have national-based competitions,” he added.
Coe said a World Athletics panel examined every request to switch nationality and he accepted in some cases there would be circumstances in which it was acceptable, such as marriage or “political intolerance”.
But he said Turkey’s bid to recruit elite athletes from other countries by offering them financial packages in a bid to boost its medal count at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics was the kind of move that would always be rejected.
“If it is simply about wanting to move from one federation to another, that doesn’t fall into that criteria. We will remain tough,” Coe said.
“It’s very important, most federations rely very heavily on government investment and government investment will dry up if those governments think that they are investing in talent programmes for other countries.”
Letsile Tebogo, the 2024 Olympic 200 metres champion and the leading light of a talented crop of Botswanan sprinters, revealed in December that he has rebuffed offers to switch to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia.
Botswana, a country of 2.5 million inhabitants which is largely desert, has experienced economic turbulence with the downturn of the global diamond market, which represents 30 percent of its GDP, but continues to inject funds into its successful athletics programme.