While it was exciting to see Togo win its first medal at an Olympic games, but Benjamin Boukpet who won the bronze medal in mens K1 slalom, has only been to the country once, when he was a child to see his grandmother.

Boukpet was born in France to a French mother and Togolese father. He decided to compete for Togo when he couldn’t make the French team.

At least this can give a way of smaller, poorer countries to share in some Olympic success, but it does bring up the point, as to how can an athlete be born in one country yet compete for another? The United States even has 33 foreign born athletes.

What do you think determines nationality?