To appreciate the mystique of the Olympic games, one needs to look no further than the Opening Ceremonies. While the world watches, nations divided by race, language, political and religious ideologies come together to celebrate the pinnacle of athletic achievement under one unified event.
Many of those same feelings of world unification and togetherness can be found on a regular basis within MSU’s 25 varsity sports. In the time since the last Summer Olympiad in Beijing, China, in 2008, nearly 70 athletes whose place of birth resides outside of the United States have donned the Green and White.
In the past four years alone, MSU has featured at least one student-athlete from 24 different countries ranging from Belgium to South Africa to Kuwait and beyond.
Of those born outside of the United States, the largest concentration of athletes within MSU athletics hails from Canada. The U.S.’s neighbor to the north has brought at least 30 athletes to MSU with the distribution spread across multiple sports.
The MSU hockey team under both former coach Rick Comley and current head coach Tom Anastos has averaged six Canadian-born players during the last four years, with the peak coming with seven during the 2009-10 season including senior forward Kevin Walrod and junior forward Lee Reimer. The rowing team also brings in a high concentration of Canadian talent, averaging more than seven Canadian athletes per season.
Outside of Canada, other countries have made notable contributions to MSU’s athletic programs.
The second largest contribution comes from the Netherlands (five) followed closely by Scotland (four) and a three-way tie between Zimbabwe, New Zealand and Russia (three).
Despite being without an international player for several years, the men’s basketball team featured centers Idong Ibok (Nigeria) and Goran Suton (Bosnia-Herzegovina) during the team’s 2008-09 Final Four run that ended with a loss to North Carolina in the national championship game.
Other notable Spartan athletes from outside of the United States include track and field athlete Dana Al-Nasrallah — who became the first woman to represent Kuwait in the Olympics during the 2004 Athens games — and former offensive lineman J’Michael Deane, who hails from Toronto and currently plays football for the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders.
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