The three exuberant Olympians — along with South Sudanese marathoner Guor Marial, who did not attend the ceremony — make up the four independent athletes competing under the Olympic flag, after unusual circumstances left them without a country to compete for.

Those three who were in attendance are former citizens of the Netherlands Antilles, which was peacefully dissolved in October 2010. Although the athletes were allowed to compete for Aruba or the Netherlands, they elected to participate as independents — and seem to be having a blast doing so.
However, Marial’s road to the Olympics was substantially more difficult than it was for the others. A refugee from the war-torn nation of Sudan, Marial found sanctuary in the United States in 2001. He has a green card and refugee status to live in the U.S., but no citizenship. He also does not have citizenship from South Sudan, leaving him a literal man without a country.

In any case, South Sudan, which has been a country for just over a year, has yet to develop a National Olympic Committee and could not field a team.

Marial had the option of competing for Sudan, the country he fled when he was eight years old, but turned down the offer.

“If I ran for Sudan, I would be betraying my people,” he told The Huffington Post. “I would be dishonoring the two million people who died for our freedom.”

It’s disappointing Marial cannot compete for South Sudan and downright insulting that he was even asked to compete for Sudan. The constant fighting in the nation claimed the lives of 28 of his family members. To run for Sudan would be to run in contempt of his family.

It wasn’t until July 20 the International Olympic Committee decided to allow Marial to compete as an independent athlete, just eight days before the opening ceremonies.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Great Britain’s Tiffany Porter seems to have too many countries to choose from.

The American-born Porter is a recent University of Michigan graduate who, after failing to make the U.S. Olympic team in 2008, switched allegiances to Great Britain. Porter’s mother is Black British and her father is Nigerian, and she has held citizenship in Great Britain her entire life.

Porter herself has come under constant fire from the British media, who have called her a “Plastic Brit,” a derogatory term used to designate someone who is participating under a different flag than his or her native country. In a recent media session, a reporter asked Porter to recite “God Save the Queen” to validate her nationality; Porter declined.

It seems unfair Marial cannot compete for his home country, while Porter is running for a country that isn’t even sure it wants her.

Millions of people died during the Sudanese civil wars for South Sudan to become recognized as an independent state. Why shouldn’t Marial be allowed to proudly display his country’s colors in honor of that sacrifice? And why does Porter get to compete for Great Britain just because she had trouble making the U.S. team?

The answer lies in the Olympics’ history of following tradition. The games are steeped in the traditional procedure, but that’s part of what makes them so majestic.

So what if a talented athlete is denied the opportunity to don his native land’s colors because they have yet to form a National Olympic Committee? To grant permission for Marial to run for South Sudan would mean going against the way the games have always gone. And although Porter was born, raised and went to school in the U.S., she’ll compete for Great Britain because that’s the way it’s always been done.

It might seem foolish. It might not be fair. But don’t expect the International Olympic Committee to rush to accommodate any time soon.

After all, the Olympics have been around since ancient Greece. Why change anything now?

Jesse O’Brien is a reporter at The State News and a journalism senior. Reach him at obrie151@msu.edu.