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Plastic Brit, or Plastic Briton, is a pejorative term used to describe athletes who choose to represent Great Britain in international sport despite having personal connections to another country. Some media critics believe it undermines the purpose of international sport for the purpose of medals. The term came into popular use in 2012 when it was reported that 61 out of 542 (11%) of the British Olympic team had been born abroad. ==History and use== The term "Plastic Brit" is derived from Plastic Paddy, which is used to describe people who claim to be Irish despite not residing in that country.〔 While the concept gained the British media's attention in the run-up to the 2012 Summer Olympics, it had also been used in describing members of other British sporting teams. England's cricket team had a perceived problem of having too many foreign-born players. The England and Wales Cricket Board responded to the issue by lengthening the residency period before a foreign player can be accepted to play for England to seven years. The term was popularised in the United Kingdom through its usage in the ''Daily Mail'' newspaper to describe athletes born outside the UK who had been selected to represent Great Britain at the London 2012 Summer Olympics. The term originally had foundations from South African-born Zola Budd having her British citizenship application fast tracked in order to represent Great Britain at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Several athletes have been described by the press as "Plastic Brits". Tiffany Porter was selected as the captain of Great Britain's athletics team at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships despite being born in the United States. She was described as a "Plastic Brit" in the media for refusing to recite the words of the British national anthem, "God Save the Queen", at a press conference. After Porter broke the British record for the 100 metres hurdles, the previous record holder Angela Thorp said that she felt "devastated" that Porter had broken her record because she had expected Jessica Ennis to break it. The term was used to describe a number of amateur wrestlers such as Myroslav Dykun and Yana Stadnik who had not been born in the UK and had been given British citizenship. Only one wrestler had competed for Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics, Ukrainian-born Olga Butkevych. British Wrestling had the majority of its host nation berths removed by the British Olympic Association because of British Wrestling's failing to reach set performance targets. The term "Plastic Brit" was also used when there were calls for Arsenal's Spanish goalkeeper Manuel Almunia to play for the England national football team in 2009. It was argued by some newspaper reporters that selecting athletes born outside of the UK was discriminatory against British-born athletes and was against the spirit of the Olympics. In 2012, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) imposed a mandatory three-year waiting period before athletes could compete in the Olympics for another country. In response, International Olympic Committee chairman Jacques Rogge said, "Then there are cases where there is support (athletes competing for other countries ) but they go because there is a bigger gain (the athlete ) in another country. Legally we can't stop it but it doesn't mean we love it."〔 In 2015, the term was also erroneously levelled at sprinter Zharnel Hughes by some newspapers despite Hughes having British citizenship by virtue of being born in Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory without IOC recognition.〔http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jul/03/zharnel-hughes-plastic-brit-shrugs-off-british-championships〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Plastic Brit」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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