Olympics: Yamile Aldama calls on critics to get behind Team GB

Published on 16/07/2012 01:32

Triple jumper Yamile Aldama has accused the critics who call her a “Plastic Brit” of promoting a “damaging” attitude toward people who come to live in Britain and called on those who use the “offensive” term to stop.

The Havana-born 39-year-old is one of a number of athletes in the Great Britain team for the Olympics who have switched allegiance to represent Team GB. Aldama will be competing for her third different country in London, having represented Cuba at the 2000 Olympics and Sudan four years later. But she is married to a Scot, has lived in Britain for more than a decade and gained British citizenship in 2010 almost ten years after her initial application.

Writing in a Sunday newspaper, Aldama said: “Plastic Brits. I have been hearing that term over and over again in the weeks and months building up to the Games. At first it did not bother me. I have lived in this country for 11 years, I am married to a British man, I have British children, I train under a British coach, at a British club.

“This is my home. What are they talking about? But in the past week it has really begun to upset me. It is so offensive. I have been thinking about it a lot, very deeply, and I have decided that I want to speak out about it.”

The “Plastic Brit” issue came to a head at the World Indoor Championships in March when United States-born 100m hurdler Tiffany Porter was named team captain and asked by a reporter to recite the opening verse of God Save the Queen.

Aldama revealed she recently took her coach Frank Attoh by surprise by singing the national anthem to him. She added: “After everything I have been through in my life I won’t let this affect me. But I want it to stop, it is not nice for me or for my family. It is very sad that this is happening because it sends the wrong message. What if children start being called Plastic Brits in the playground? Please let us stop this before real damage is done.

“This is my message: ‘Back the team’. That is what we need to succeed at the Games.”