List of nationality transfers in sport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of sports persons who have moved to compete for another country (sorted in by per nation transfered to). Not included in this list are:

• Players who could choose to play for a new country after the dissolution of their former country. This mainly affected players from the former Soviet Union, such as Viktor Onopko, and the former Yugoslavia, such as Davor Šuker.
• Players who represented the country they moved to in childhood. Frequently, the home countries of such players are former colonies of their future countries (such as Patrick Vieira, born in Senegal but moved to France in childhood). Another example of such a player was Marcel Desailly, a Ghana-born player who was adopted in childhood by a French diplomat and raised in France.
• Players who could have chosen to represent more than one country due to their birthplace, parentage, ancestry (i.e., at least one grandparent), and/or residence. Some notable examples:
  • Current England international Owen Hargreaves. Because he was a United Kingdom citizen born outside the country (specifically in Canada), he was eligible to play for any of the four Home Nations—England, Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales. His birth in Canada made him eligible for that country, and his residence in Germany would have made him eligible for that country also.
  • Current German international Kevin Kurányi, who chose Germany (parentage) over Brazil (birthplace), Panama (parentage) and Hungary (ancestry).
  • Former USA international Earnie Stewart, who chose the USA (parentage) over the Netherlands (birthplace and parentage).

Contents 1 Alpine skiing 2 Archery 3 Athletics 4 Auto racing 5 Badminton 6 Baseball 7 Basketball 8 Biathlon 9 Bobsleigh 10 Boxing 11 Bridge 12 Canoeing 13 Chess 14 Cricket 15 Cross-country skiing 16 Cue sports 17 Curling 18 Cycling 19 Draughts 20 Equestrianism 21 Fencing 22 Field hockey 23 Figure skating 24 Football (soccer) 25 Freestyle skiing 26 Gymnastics 27 Handball 28 Ice hockey 29 Judo 30 Netball 31 Rugby Union 32 Sailing 33 Shooting 34 Short track speed skating 35 Skeleton 36 Softball 37 Speed skating 38 Squash 39 Surfing 40 Swimming 41 Table tennis 42 Tennis 43 Triathlon 44 Volleyball 45 Weightlifting

[edit] Alpine skiing

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Kilian Albrecht	Switzerland	Bulgaria
Katrin Gutensohn	Austria	Germany
Elfi Eder	Austria	Grenada
Marc Girardelli	Austria	Luxembourg
Sascha Gritsch	Italy	Moldova
Urs Imboden	Switzerland	Moldova
Christophe Roux	Switzerland	Moldova
Christa Kinshofer	Germany	Netherlands

• Reuters. "FIS to curb nation-swapping", Eurosport, 2 February 2007. Retrieved on 2007-02-17.

[edit] Archery

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Natalia Valeeva	Moldova	Italy
Natalia Nasaridze	Soviet Union	Turkey

[edit] Athletics

See List of nationality transfers in athletics

[edit] Auto racing

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Darryl O'Young	Canada	Hong Kong
Rikky von Opel	Germany	Liechtenstein
Robert Doornbos	Netherlands	Monaco
Toulo de Graffenried	France	Switzerland
Andreas Zuber	Austria	United Arab Emirates

[edit] Badminton

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Pi Hongyan	China	France
Xu Huaiwen	China	Germany
Mia Audina	Indonesia	Netherlands
Yao Jie	China	Netherlands
Xin Xu Bing	China	Spain

[edit] Baseball

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Sharnol Adriana	Netherlands Antilles	Netherlands
Ivanon Coffie	Netherlands Antilles	Netherlands
Yurendell DeCaster	Netherlands Antilles	Netherlands
Chairon Isenia	Netherlands Antilles	Netherlands
Andruw Jones	Netherlands Antilles	Netherlands
Jair Jurrjens	Netherlands Antilles	Netherlands
Eugene Kingsale	Aruba	Netherlands
Calvin Maduro	Aruba	Netherlands
Diegomar Markwell	Netherlands Antilles	Netherlands
Shairon Martis	Netherlands Antilles	Netherlands
Hensley Meulens	Netherlands Antilles	Netherlands
Sidney Ponson	Aruba	Netherlands
Randall Simon	Netherlands Antilles	Netherlands
Hainley Statia	Netherlands Antilles	Netherlands

[edit] Basketball

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Henry Domercant	United States	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Priest Lauderdale	United States	Bulgaria
Howard Carter	United States	France
Marko Pesic	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Germany
Joe Vogel	United States	Lebanon
Chris McGuthrie	United States	Netherlands
Chris Mims	United States	Netherlands
Jeff Nordgaard	United States	Poland
Ariel McDonald	United States	Slovenia
Venson Hamilton	United States	Spain
Warner Nattiel	United States	Switzerland
Mirsad Türkcan	Yugoslavia	Turkey
Hakeem Olajuwon	Nigeria	United States

[edit] Biathlon

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Natalya Sokolova	Russia	Belarus
Olena Zubrilova	Ukraine	Belarus
Nathalie Santer-Bjørndalen	Italy	Belgium
Alexei Aidarov	Belarus	Ukraine

[edit] Bobsleigh

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Lascelles Brown	Jamaica	Canada
César Gonzalez	Dominican Republic	Netherlands

[edit] Boxing

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Dariusz Michalczewski	Poland	Germany
Miguel Dias	Cape Verde	Netherlands
Richel Hersisia	Netherlands Antilles	Netherlands
Hüsnü Koçabas	Turkey	Netherlands
Orhan Delibas	Turkey	Netherlands
Andrew Golota	Poland	United States

[edit] Bridge

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
George Rosenkranz	Hungary	Mexico
Fred Gitelman	Canada	United States
Michael Rosenberg	United Kingdom	United States

[edit] Canoeing

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Michael Kolganov	Uzbekistan	Israel
Josefa Idem	Germany	Italy
Michał Śliwiński	Ukraine	Poland
Marcel Glavan	Romania	Spain

[edit] Chess

See List of nationality transfers in chess

[edit] Cricket

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Kepler Wessels[1]	South Africa	Australia
Anderson Cummins	Barbados (West Indies)	Canada
Kevin Pietersen	South Africa	England
Allan Lamb	South Africa	England
Robin Smith	South Africa	England
Flavian Aponso	Sri Lanka	Netherlands
Peter Cantrell	Australia	Netherlands
Nolan Clarke	Barbados (West Indies)	Netherlands
Adeel Raja	Pakistan	Netherlands
Sammy Guillen	Trinidad and Tobago (West Indies)	New Zealand
Dipak Patel	England	New Zealand
Roger Twose	England	New Zealand
Faoud Bacchus	Guyana (West Indies)	United States
Clayton Lambert	Guyana (West Indies)	United States

[edit] Cross-country skiing

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Mikhail Botvinov	Russia	Austria
Jan Jacob Verdenius	Netherlands	Norway
Johann Mühlegg	Germany	Spain
Antonina Ordina	Soviet Union	Sweden

[edit] Cue sports

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Stefan Mazrocis	England	Netherlands

[edit] Curling

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Shari Leibbrandt-Demmon	Canada	Netherlands

[edit] Cycling

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Andrei Tchmil	Moldova	Belgium
Jaanus Kuum	Soviet Union	Norway
Steffen Wesemann	Germany	Switzerland
Guido Trenti	Italy	United States

[edit] Draughts

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Alexander Baljakin	Belarus	Netherlands

[edit] Equestrianism

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Jos Lansink	Netherlands	Belgium
Samantha McIntosh	United Kingdom	Bulgaria
Franke Sloothaak	Netherlands	Germany
Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum	United Kingdom	Germany
Jessica Kürten	United Kingdom	Republic of Ireland
Sven Rothenberger	Germany	Netherlands
Susan de Kleine	Netherlands	Netherlands Antilles
Eddy Stibbe	Netherlands	Netherlands Antilles
Jean-Claude Vangeenberghe	Belgium	Ukraine

[edit] Fencing

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Luan Jujie	China	Canada
Igor Tikhomirov	Russia	Canada

[edit] Field hockey

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Gaby Garreta	Argentina	Belgium
Vitali Kholopov	Belarus	Belgium
Tom Green	South Africa	Canada
Laurence Docherty	Scotland	Netherlands

[edit] Figure skating

Main article: Country hopping in figure skating

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Vazgen Azrojan (2)	Russia	Armenia
Anastasia Grebenkina	Russia	Armenia
Evgeni Borounov (2)	Lithuania	Australia
Anthony Liu	China	Australia
Alexander Pavlov	Russia	Australia
Dmitri Matsjuk	Ukraine	Austria
Barbora Silna	Czech Republic	Austria
David Vincour (1)	Czech Republic	Austria
Kristin Fraser	United States	Azerbaijan
Barbara Hanley	Latvia	Azerbaijan
Alexandr Kirsanov (1)	Russia	Azerbaijan
Igor Lukanin (2)	Germany	Azerbaijan
Igor Pashkevich	Russia	Azerbaijan
Daria Timoshenko	Russia	Azerbaijan
Sergei Davydov	Russia	Belarus
Tatiana Navka (1)	Ukraine	Belarus
Julia Sheremet	Russia	Belarus
Julia Soldatova (1)	Russia	Belarus
Juri Kurakin	Estonia	Bulgaria
Maxim Shabalin (1)	Russia	Bulgaria
David Defazio (1)	United States	Canada
Egor Golovkin	Russia	Canada
Victor Kraatz	Germany	Canada
Justin Lanning	United Kingdom	Canada
Arseni Markov	Russia	Canada
Jessica Miller	United States	Canada
Utako Wakamatsu	Japan	Canada
Kaitlyn Weaver	United States	Canada
Jennifer Don	United States	Chinese Taipei
David Vincour (2)	Austria	Czech Republic
Diana Rennik	Russia	Estonia
Florent Amodio	Brazil	France
Marina Anissina	Russia	France
Paul Duchesnay	Canada	France
Isabelle Duchesnay	Canada	France
Ekaterina Zaikina	Russia	Georgia
Igor Lukanin (1)	Russia	Germany
Aljona Sawtschenko	Ukraine	Germany
Andrejs Vlascenko	Soviet Union/ Latvia	Germany
Nelli Zhiganshina	Russia	Germany
Benjamin Blum	United States	Germany
Ashley Foy	United States	Germany
Ekaterina Zaikina	Russia	Georgia
Vitaliy Baranov	Ukraine	United Kingdom
Vanessa James	Canada	United Kingdom
Eric Neumann-Aubichon	Canada	Greece
Christa-Elizabeth Goulakos	Canada	Greece
Maria-Elena Papasotiriou	United States	Greece
Katherine Hadford	United States	Hungary
Ami Parekh	United States	India
Vadim Akolzin	Russia	Israel
Tamar Katz	United States	Israel
Sergei Kotov	Ukraine	Israel
Sergei Sakhnovski	Soviet Union	Israel
Roman Serov	Russia	Israel
Julia Shapiro	Russia	Israel
Michael Shmerkin	Soviet Union/ Russia	Israel
Jenna Syken	United States	Israel
Ondrej Hotarek	Czech Republic	Italy
Chris Reed	United States	Japan
Cathy Reed	United States	Japan
Alexei Tikhonov (1)	Soviet Union	Japan
Yelena Berezhnaya (1)	Russia	Latvia
Evgeni Borounov (1)	Russia	Lithuania
Katherine Copley	United States	Lithuania
Nicolette Amie House	United States	Lithuania
Clover Zatzman	United States	Lithuania
Laura Munana	United States	Mexico
Luke Munana	United States	Mexico
Emily Naphtal	United States	Mexico
Victoria Muniz	United States	Puerto Rico
Maria Binczyk	Germany	Poland
Laura Czarnotta	Germany	Poland
Dmitri Khromin	Russia	Poland
Vazgen Azrojan (1)	Ukraine	Russia
Yelena Berezhnaya (2)	Latvia	Russia
Julia Soldatova (2)	Belarus	Russia
Yuko Kawaguchi	Japan	Russia
Tatiana Navka (2)	Belarus	Russia
Julia Obertas	Ukraine	Russia
Maxim Shabalin (2)	Bulgaria	Russia
Alexei Tikhonov (2)	Japan	Russia
Taras Rajec	Ukraine	Slovakia
Nikola Visnova	Czech Republic	Slovakia
David Defazio (2)	Canada	Switzerland
Jocelyn Ho	Canada	Chinese Taipei
Charissa Tansomboon	United States	Thailand
Victoria Maxiuta	Russia	Ukraine
Daniil Barantsev	Russia	United States
Tanith Belbin	Canada	United States
Oleg Fediukov	Russia	United States
Mathew Gates	United Kingdom	United States
Kyoko Ina	Japan	United States
Rena Inoue	Japan	United States
Alexandr Kirsanov (2)	Azerbaijan	United States
Chuen-Gun Lee	Republic of Korea	United States
Sergei Magerovski	Russia	United States
Denis Petukhov	Russia	United States
Vasily Serkov	Latvia	United States
Gorsha Sur	Russia	United States
Peter Tchernyshev	Russia	United States
Tatiana Malinina	Russia	Uzbekistan
Alexander Shakalov	Ukraine	Uzbekistan
Trifun Zivanovic	United States	Yugoslavia

[edit] Football (soccer)

See List of nationality transfers in football

[edit] Freestyle skiing

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Dale Begg-Smith	Canada	Australia

[edit] Gymnastics

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Agnes Keleti	Hungary	Australia  Israel
Anna Dogonadze	Georgia	Germany
Donghua Li	China	Switzerland
Katia Pisetsky	Ukraine	Israel
Anna Pobokova	Russia	Netherlands
Nadia Comaneci	Romania	United States

[edit] Handball

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Bogdan Wenta	Poland	Germany
Irina Pusic	Croatia	Netherlands
Katja Nyberg	Finland	Norway
Lena Olsson Rosenberg	Sweden	Norway

[edit] Ice hockey

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Vladimir Rubes	Czech Republic	Australia
Jeremy Rebek	Canada	Austria
Sean Selmser	Canada	Austria
Mike Stewart	Canada	Austria
Mark Szucs	Canada	Austria
Sami Lipsonen	Finland	Belgium
Viliam Chovanec	Slovakia	Croatia
Martin Ancicka	Czech Republic	Germany
Tomáš Martinec	Czech Republic	Germany
Omar Ennaffati	Canada	Hungary
Roger Holéczy	United States	Hungary
Rastislav Ondrejcik	Slovakia	Hungary
Tamás Sille	Slovakia	Hungary
Aaron Keller	Canada	Japan
Chris Yule	Canada	Japan
Dave Livingston	United States	Netherlands
John MacDonald	Canada	Netherlands
Martin Voznik	Czech Republic	Poland

[edit] Judo

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Jenny Gal	Netherlands	Italy

[edit] Netball

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Leana de Bruin	South Africa	New Zealand
Irene van Dyk	South Africa	New Zealand

[edit] Rugby Union

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Toutai Kefu	Tonga	Australia
Patricio Noriega	Argentina	Australia
Clyde Rathbone	South Africa	Australia
Ilivasi Tabua	Fiji	Australia
Lote Tuqiri	Fiji	Australia
Daniel Vickerman	South Africa	Australia
Christian Stewart	South Africa	Canada
Mike Catt	South Africa	England
Matt Stevens	South Africa	England
Pieter de Villiers	South Africa	France
Brian Liebenberg	South Africa	France
Andrew McCormick	New Zealand	Japan
Andrew Miller	New Zealand	Japan
Adam Parker	New Zealand	Japan
Roland de Marigny	South Africa	Italy
Gert Peens	South Africa	Italy
Greg Rawlinson	South Africa	New Zealand
Alama Ieremia	Samoa	New Zealand
Joe Rokocoko	Fiji	New Zealand
Sitiveni Sivivatu	Fiji	New Zealand
Brent Cockbain	Australia	Wales
Hal Luscombe	South Africa	Wales

[edit] Sailing

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Mitch Booth	Australia	Netherlands
Carolijn Brouwer	Netherlands	Belgium

[edit] Shooting

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Dorzhsuren Munkhbayar	Mongolia	Germany

[edit] Short track speed skating

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Choi Min-Kyung	Republic of Korea	France
Kim Hyo-Jung	Republic of Korea	United States

[edit] Skeleton

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Dirk Matschenz	Germany	Netherlands
Melanie Riedl	Germany	Netherlands

[edit] Softball

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Breedge Quinn	Republic of Ireland	Germany

[edit] Speed skating

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Emese Antal	Romania	Austria
Emese Hunyady	Hungary	Austria
Marnix ten Kortenaar	Netherlands	Austria
Zsolt Zakarias	Romania	Austria
Bart Veldkamp	Netherlands	Belgium
André Vreugdenhil	Netherlands	Belgium
Pim Berkhout	Netherlands	Czech Republic
Maarten Blanken	Netherlands	Czech Republic
Erik Bouwman	Netherlands	Czech Republic
Hans van Helden	Netherlands	France
Dino Gillarduzzi	Italy	Germany
Zsolt Baló	Romania	Hungary
Henriët Bosker	Netherlands	Switzerland
Ronald Bosker	Netherlands	Switzerland

[edit] Squash

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Natalie Grainger	South Africa	England  United States
Peter Nicol	Scotland	England
Vanessa Atkinson	England	Netherlands
Annelize Naudé	South Africa	Netherlands
Carla Khan	England	Pakistan

[edit] Surfing

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Wendy Botha	South Africa	Australia

[edit] Swimming

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Michael Klim	Poland	Australia
Alena Popchanka	Belarus	France
Sarah Poewe	South Africa	Germany
Vadim Alexeev	Soviet Union	Israel
Judith Haspel	Austria	Israel
Dan Kutler	United States	Israel
Mitja Zastrow	Germany	Netherlands
Nina Zhivanevskaya	Russia	Spain
Lenny Krayzelburg	Ukraine	United States

[edit] Table tennis

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Liu Song	China	Argentina
Chen Weixing	China	Austria
Li Qiangbing	China	Austria
Liu Jia	China	Austria
Feng Zhe	China	Bulgaria
Zhang Peng	China	Canada
Tan Ruiwu	China	Croatia
Ju Lin	China	Dominican Republic
Wu Xue	China	Dominican Republic
Li Xue	China	France
Xian Yi Fang	China	France
Wu Jiaduo	China	Germany
Yan Su	China	Germany
Tan Wenling	China	Italy
Yang Min	China	Italy
Ni Xia Lian	China	Luxembourg
Elena Timina	Russia	Netherlands
Li Jiao	China	Netherlands
Li Jie	China	Netherlands
Wang Jianfeng	China	Norway
Li Qian	China	Poland
Wang Zeng Yi	China	Poland
Xu Jie	China	Poland
He Zhi Wen	China	Spain
Jiao Yongli	China	Spain
Shen Yanfei	China	Spain
Wang Wei	China	Spain
Gao Jun	China	United States
Wang Chen	China	United States

[edit] Tennis

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Robert Smeets	Netherlands	Australia
Libor Pimek	Czechoslovakia	Belgium
Bob Falkenburg	United States	Brazil
Patricia Hy-Boulais	Hong Kong	Canada
Jaroslav Drobný	Czechoslovakia	Egypt  United Kingdom
Tatiana Golovin	Russia	France
Anna Smashnova	Soviet Union	Israel
Romina Oprandi	Switzerland	Italy
Jelena Dokic	Australia	Serbia and Montenegro
Martina Hingis	Czechoslovakia	Switzerland
Greg Rusedski	Canada	United Kingdom
Liezel Huber	South Africa	United States
Ivan Lendl	Czechoslovakia	United States
Molla Mallory	Norway	United States
Martina Navratilova	Czechoslovakia	United States
Monica Seles	Yugoslavia	United States
R. Norris Williams	Switzerland	United States

[edit] Triathlon

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Kate Allen	Australia	Austria
Tracy Looze	Australia	Netherlands

[edit] Volleyball

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Chaïne Staelens	Belgium	Netherlands
Kim Staelens	Belgium	Netherlands
Irina Donets	Russia	Netherlands

[edit] Weightlifting

Name of athlete	From nation	To nation
Kakhi Kakhiashvili	Georgia	Greece
Nader Sufyan Abbas	Bulgaria	Qatar
Said Saif Asaad	Bulgaria	Qatar
Jaber Saeed Salem	Bulgaria	Qatar
Halil Mutlu	Bulgaria	Turkey
Naim Süleymanoğlu	Bulgaria	Turkey