Golden jumper plays down US roots

http://www.ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2006-08-09_1095163.html

European champ says he feels foreign in America (ANSA) - Rome, August 9 - New European long jump champion Andrew Howe has played down his American roots and insists he is "more Italian" than many people born in the Bel Paese .



The 21-year-old, who gave Italy its first ever male long-jump gold medal at a major championship in Gothenburg on Tuesday, was born in Los Angeles and is frequently described as an American-Italian in the media here .



But the Italian Air Force officer has lived in the town of Rieti, near Rome, since he was five and has no doubts where his loyalties lie .



"I prefer our country a thousand times to the US," he told sports daily Corriere dello Sport .



"Every time I go there I feel like a foreigner, almost a tourist. And then I come back to Rieti and I feel at home" .

Congratulations have poured in for the handsome, black athlete from Italian Sports Minister Giovanna Melandri, Defence Minister Arturo Parisi and Lazio Regional Government Chief Piero Marrazzo .

Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni told Howe his achievement made him "officially part of the great history of Italian sport" in a telegram .

Despite dominating the long jump competition in Gothenburg, Howe said he is not fully satisfied .

"I'm happy, but the season has not finished yet because I know I can beat the Italian record," Howe said .

"This gold medal is of great value and I'll try to win another next year at the World Championships in Osaka, which is even more important. But I hope to break the Italian record before then" .

Howe's winning leap of 8.20m was some way from his personal best of 8.41, which he pulled off in Rome last month to come within two centimetres of Giovanni Evangelisti's Italian record .

Howe is also a fine 200-metre sprinter and his talents have led some to compare him with the great Carl Lewis .

For the moment though, he is concentrating on the long jump and expressed delight Tuesday that this decision has "paid off" .

He is a useful soccer player too and while he was still at school, Serie A outfit Empoli tried to lure him away from athletics to join their academy .

In fact, Howe, who won a long jump bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships earlier this year, has sport in his genes .

He is trained by his American mother, Renee Felton, a former US hurdler, while his natural father - whom Felton divorced before falling in love with an Italian and moving to Rieti - was an American football player .

The CV of Howe - 1.84m tall and 73 kilos - also includes the long jump and 200m junior world championship crowns, which he won in 2004 .

In his free time, Howe unwinds by playing the drums in a rock band .



© Copyright ANSA. All rights reserved 2006-08-09


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lol If you live somewhere since you're 5, and you're now 21, OF COURSE you'd much more consider it your home over a place you lived for 4-5 years, when your brain wasn't even near it's full development. It matters where your brain develops as you grow up to adulthood; that is what makes your mind 'get used' to it's surroundings, and when/if it leaves, then it feels 'home sick'.

So it's no surprise.

Ironically he can be American, since that doesn't mean anything, but he can't ever be Italian.

.

And why exactly can't he ever be Italian?

He's lived in the country ten years, speaks Italian, and is obviously a protagonist in an Italian sport, he can have citizenship, so what you say is hooey. Although, he probably already has it.

There is another athelete like him - Rossi, a brilliant soccer player left the USA to play for Italy. He is now a player in the Under-21 Italian team. He is excellent in my opinion.

Hopefully people like these two can encourage some members of the diaspora to come back to Italy.

I'm already doing my duty, I am planning on returning, hehe.





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