A sprinter born and raised in the United States who's set to run for Samoa at the Rio Olympics says he wants to create a foundation with the aim of raising standards and getting more Samoan track and field athletes to future games.
Even though Samoa's Olympic Committee is yet to finalise its team, Jeremy Dodson's times are so good that a place on the plane to Brazil would seem to be a formality.
He has run for the US in the past, but with Samoan heritage on his mother's side, Jeremy said he has never felt quite right representing America.
“I ran in a few US teams or a couple of US teams,” he said.
“I represented the US for a fair amount of times. But it didn’t just feel the same. My mum who was born and raised in Samoa was very homesick so I wanted to do it for her and for our family. So I have looked up some of the protocols, how to run for Samoa if possible and somehow I went through the process and this will be my second year representing the country of Samoa,” Dodson said.
Dodson’s said his mother’s family mostly grew up in Apia before moving overseas.
His mother visited Samoa last year after 20 years of living in the US.
Dodson told ABC he wants to be a witness to sporting legends of Samoan descent like Australian footballer Tim Cahill and tell the world how great the athletes of Samoa are.