Home > Spain > Spanish Runner Mohamed Katir Highlights Citizenship Struggle After National (…)
Spanish Runner Mohamed Katir Highlights Citizenship Struggle After National Victory
Sunday 3 July 2022, by
Mohamed Katir, the Spanish athlete of Moroccan origin, had to wait four full years before obtaining Spanish nationality. At the same time, other athletes were satisfied eight months after applying. How to explain this inequality in treatment?
Mohamed Katir, 24, again denounced last weekend his uphill battle before obtaining Spanish nationality. "I won the national championship four years in a row, but they didn’t give me the medal. [...] I felt very bad. I cried for hours," said the athlete of Moroccan origin, after winning his first gold medal in the 5,000 meters at a Spanish championship.
Born in Ksar El-Kébir, Katir has been living in Mula (Murcia) since childhood. In 2015, at the age of 17, he applied to be naturalized Spanish, but his application remained unanswered. While he continued to win races in Spain without being able to step onto the podium, he also initiated the procedures to obtain Spanish nationality (by residence), which was granted to him at the end of 2019, four years later.
Mohamed Katir is the current Spanish record holder in the 1,500, 3,000 and 5,000 meters, performances he achieved in 2021, the first year he participated in competitions as a Spaniard. The athlete of Moroccan origin is not the only one to experience this situation. "There are a lot of athletes living what I lived four years ago, they are very good, but they don’t have nationality and can’t be in the big championships," he denounces.
"There are a lot of athletes in this situation, I would like it to be faster, but the deadlines are the deadlines. We try to help them, Katir asked us for this help, but it’s an administrative issue," explains Raúl Chapado, president of the Spanish Athletics Federation.