A World Athletics panel has refused 11 allegiance transfer requests to Turkiye over what it called a “coordinated recruitment strategy” by the Turkish government to attract overseas athletes with lucrative contracts, the sport’s governing body has said.
The requests came from five Kenyan athletes, including former women’s marathon world record holder Brigid Kosgei, and four Jamaicans, including Olympic discus gold medallist Roje Stona and Olympic shot put bronze medallist Rajindra Campbell.
Other Kenyans include Paris Olympics 5,000m silver medallist Ronald Kwemoi, Catherine Relin Amanang’ole, Brian Kibor, and Nelvin Jepkemboi.
The decision, announced in April 2026, halts a, reported $500,000 deal to represent Turkey at the LA 2028 Olympics, with officials citing violations of eligibility principles.
Turkey had been offering long-term financial support to recruit foreign track and field stars with the aim of winning a host of gold medals at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The move was prompted by Turkey’s dire performance at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, where it failed to win a single gold among its eight medals across all sports.
The transfer was rejected because the recruitment strategy, involving a “wholly-owned and financed government club,” was deemed inconsistent with fair transfer regulations.
Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili and Russian heptathlete Sophia Yakushina were the other two requests.
The World Athletics Nationality Review Panel said it considered that approval of these applications would compromise eligibility rules and transfer of allegiance regulations.
“The panel found that the applications formed part of a coordinated recruitment strategy led by the Turkiye government acting through a wholly-owned and financed government club, to attract overseas athletes through lucrative contracts,” World Athletics said in a statement.
“With the aim of facilitating transfers of allegiance and enabling those athletes to represent Turkiye at future international competitions, including the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.”
World Athletics’ transfer of allegiance regulations include criteria aimed at ensuring a genuine connection between the athlete and the country they represent and to protect the integrity, credibility and development of the sport globally.
The rules were tightened in 2019, with World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe saying some cases of young athletes switching allegiance were akin to human trafficking.
