The 27-year-old from New York, who has an Irish grandparent, was a stand-out talent as a teenager, qualifying for the World Championships in 2013 aged 17 and becoming a world junior champion at 3,000 metres a year later.
Former US distance runner Mary Cain makes switch to represent Ireland internationally (msn.com)
Ireland has a generous right-of-descent immigration program so she qualifies for Irish residency and a path to citizenship in Ireland.
A former co-worker of mine, born in the U.S., to immigrant parents from another country, later became captain of his parents’ country’s Olympic sailing team and competed in the Olympic Games. He also received dual citizenship in that EU country, which he later leveraged as an industry consultant who could work in both the U.S. and the EU without needing additional visas. He later moved to Paris.