Can Countries buy athletes like they do in Football?

[Jakorin]

For example:

Jamaica has very fast runners and stuff, are they going to be bought/Sponsered by the USA or some other countries?

[gd g]

Yes Qatar does it all the time. For example take a Bulgarian weightlifter like Yani Marchokov. Give him a million bucks a Qatari passport and an Arabic name like Saeed Salem Jaber and voila.

[listener]

no they cannot be bought. any one who is paid to represent a country in the olympics is disqualified. athletes can choose to represent the country of their choice. some choose their home country, such as the US, or a country of their parents. Countries can try to lure athletes to compete for us, but buying them out is prohibited. It comes down to who the athlete wishes to represent in the greatest athletic showcase of our time.

* the guy holding the US flag was not born here, but he is a US citizen.