Aliyah Shipman (r) is hoping to represent Haiti at the Tokyo Olympics this week.

Six athletes representing Haiti will be competing at the Tokyo Olympics this month, but there could have been seven. Due to a United States Olympic Committee (USOC) eligibility rule, Aliyah Shipman will not be heading to Japan to represent Haiti in taekwondo because she was born in the U.S. and previously represented America.

“Shortly after I qualified for the Olympics, the USOC began to harass Haiti for allowing me to compete for them,” Shipman, of Plantation, FL, said via Instagram. “They claim that I cannot fight for Haiti because I used to fight for the USA.”

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Larisa is a reporter for The Haitian Times covering politics, elections and education primarily. A graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, she has interned at CNBC and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network. She is also a recipient of a 2021 DBEI Fellowship by Investigative Reporters & Editors. Larisa can be reached by email at larisa@haitiantimes.com or on Twitter @larisakarr.