It&#8217;s an iconic Olympic image: Athletes wiping away a tear on the medal stand while singing along to their national anthem. But what if they don&#8217;t quite know the words?</p><p>That might be the case at the Beijing Olympics if, for instance, the Russian women win gold in basketball. One of the &#8220;Russians&#8221; is South Dakota native Becky Hammon.</p><p>A Colorado State graduate, she&#8217;s one of the WNBA&#8217;s most popular players and competes for the San Antonio Silver Stars. She is not of Russian heritage, did not relocate to Russia, nor has she in any way renounced the United States.</p><p>But Hammon and Bucknell graduate J.R. Holden, who is on the Russian men&#8217;s basketball team, represent something that might make you uneasy. And that&#8217;s the concept of Olympic &#8220;free agency.&#8221; Hammon, who will get a large incentive check if Russia wins gold, has said this is really about having a chance at her Olympic dream. Holden, though, has referred to his playing for Russia as simply &#8220;making a living.&#8221;</p><p>The idea of representing a country in the Olympic Games other than your native land is not news. It doesn&#8217;t always involve immigration, but rather a connection/citizenship through genetics. For example, American-born-and-raised Giuseppe Rossi is not playing for the U.S. men&#8217;s soccer team, but rather for his parents&#8217; native Italy.</p><p>Often it&#8217;s been the United States &#8212; a nation of immigrants &#8212; that has benefited from athletes arriving from elsewhere to compete for the red, white and blue.</p><p>Consider Kenya native Bernard Lagat, the reigning world champion in the 1,500 and 5,000 meters in track. He won a silver medal for Kenya in the 2004 Olympics &#8212; though he trained and lived in the United States then &#8212; and is now a U.S. citizen.</p><p>He and the other Americans in the 1,500 &#8212; Leonel Manzano and Lopez Lomong &#8212; are all immigrants who&#8217;ve earned U.S. citizenship. Manzano is from Mexico, and Lomong is from Sudan. Lomong escaped as a child from his war-torn country to Kenya, then was adopted by a New York couple.</p><p>Lee&#8217;s Summit graduate Matt Tegenkamp, who finished second to Lagat in the 5,000 at the Olympic trials, said he doesn&#8217;t even think about where some of his teammates originally are from.</p><p>&#8220;They may be naturalized, but they are definitely American citizens and have been living the American lifestyle for many years,&#8221; Tegenkamp said. &#8220;We never pay attention to it, and they&#8217;re just another teammate for us.</p><p>&#8220;It has made the level of track competition rise in the United States, for sure. It means the United States is probably the only country every (Olympics) that is deep enough to send three people in every event.&#8221;</p><p>But something Tegenkamp mentioned points out the difference between a situation like Lagat&#8217;s and Hammon&#8217;s or Holden&#8217;s. They did not have to immerse themselves in Russian culture or embrace a Russian lifestyle to get Russian passports. Those were expedited after they signed contracts to play with Russian pro teams.</p><p>And because they hadn&#8217;t competed previously for any other nation in an event sanctioned by the world governing body of basketball, FIBA, they were eligible to play for Russia.</p><p>Hammon has said repeatedly she would have given just about anything to play for Team USA if she thought she had a real opportunity. And despite U.S. coach Anne Donovan saying that Hammon <em>did</em> have some chance, the lack of inclusion by USA Basketball in regard to Hammon in recent years did not suggest she truly would have been given much consideration.