Nationality vs Citizenship for Athletics

Legal Dual Nationality
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Researching the difference between nationality versus citizenship requirement for athletic representation for Taiwan.

For example, if athlete’s mother is Taiwanese (born in TW), based on principle of Jus Sanguinis then athlete automatically has Taiwanese nationality even if born outside of TW (example, USA or UK). According to some athletic bodies like IOC, “According to the Olympic Charter (Rule 40-41) Any competitor in the Olympic Games must be a national of the country of the NOC which is entering such competitor . A competitor who is a national of two or more countries at the same time may represent either one of them, as he may elect.”

Does this mean TW allows a dual national athlete to represent Taiwan without citizenship requirement? i.e. has Passport to show 中華民國國籍 but not residency for 公民權

Also does the age of athlete make a difference, i.e. younger than 20 versus 20 years or older (I know this does affect the ease of applying for dual nationality by Taiwanese parent).

Would this improve Taiwan’s visibility on the world stage, at least in athletics that are not as popular in Asia (in other words NOT baseball, badminton, pingpong)?

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could be, the Israeli national baseball team is almost all American players with dual passports. Plus, its not really a problem for the government to hand out passports to athletes, the problem is for foreigners that live here and cant get dual passport.

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Taiwan doesn’t make a distinction between a national and a citizen like some countries do. Those terms are interchangeable.

Those possessing NWOHR passports are nationals/citizens. They just don’t have permanent residency rights.

Whether the IOC would approve a NWOHR to compete for Taiwan, on the other hand, is hard to say. My guess is yes.

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The OP didn’t state clearly which competitions they are referring to, but they did use the Olympics as an example. In any case, every sport’s governing body has its own rules so they can differ depending on which competition we’re talking about.

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As an aside the Taiwan soccer authorities have openly offered passports to children of mixed UK Taiwan couples if they are already academy players or have signed pro contracts.

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Don’t they already have passports?

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Depends. Not if they’re born in blighty and have never come back. Will Donkin is the most famous example. Although he hasn’t really kicked on after being signed by Palace. He’s now playing for Shenzhen.

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Thank you everyone for your replies. I used IOC/Olympics because it’s an easy and well known example especially recently with the attention on American citizen(s) competing for PRC (Can someone compete for a country other than their birth nation? | wcnc.com). Also mentioned was an athlete competing both for USA and UK different years based on dual citizenship even though I was under the impression that USA does not allow dual, but UK does.

Let’s say an athlete wants to compete in a sport that’s less popular in TW (say, Skateboarding? Got into the 2020 Olympics) and wants to represent TW as NWOHR. IOC seems to look at “Nationality” maybe that means it will allow. Then will TW also allow athlete to compete on its behalf?

Maybe skateboarding is a poor example given the recent popular thread about yielding to pedestrians… seems like a highly hazardous sport in TW.

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The USA allows dual citizenship, just FYI.

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don’t know if he had household registration, but he played in canada as a junior.

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Thanks for that correction, I didn’t realize that!

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呂明龍 is an interesting example because now we’re talking about representing TW in world competitions (not just the Olympics) and as a Youth Athlete. Thank you for sharing that!

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what @projectmaximus said. each municipal/national/international governing body of each sport has each rules, and they are public. you can check them.

you may also check situations of jeremy lin.