Rory McIlroy's Northern Ireland Roots Allow Him to Choose Which Country He Represents in the Olympics

The history of colonialism has made Olympic representation ... messy. Athletes often have plausible claims to play for multiple different countries for a huge variety of reasons, and when that's the case, they usually get to choose which country they want to play for.

Rory McIlroy is currently competing in the 2024 Olympics for Ireland, but some are wondering why he has chosen to play for Ireland instead of Great Britain. Here's what we know about why he made that call.

Rory is playing for Ireland because he is originally from Hollywood, which is near Belfast in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland, if you aren't aware, is the part of Ireland that still belongs to the United Kingdom, even though it shares a border with Ireland and not with the U.K. There is a long, messy, bloody history around that border that you could spend hours learning more about.

For now, then, suffice it to say that Rory is from Northern Ireland, and Olympians from Northern Ireland get to choose whether they want to play for the Republic of Ireland or for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Team GB, as it's often called, is controversial in part because it leaves Northern Ireland out, and there have been calls in the past to rebrand it as "Team U.K."

In explaining why he chose to play for Ireland ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, Rory simply explained that he has always played for them in international competitions. In his answer, Rory even said that he "feels more British" than Irish but has always played under the Irish flag in international competitions since he was a kid. So, if you're wondering why he plays for Ireland, the simple answer is that he's not looking to rock the boat.

“I made it more difficult for myself than I needed to,” Rory said when announcing that he would be playing for Ireland in Tokyo. “My feeling towards it was more, ‘What will other people think?’ Once I got that out of my head and just tried to do what was right for me, then it became easy. It was me wrestling with all of those things."

“As I said, previously, once I left trying not to upset anyone aside, then it was actually a pretty easy decision," he continued. "The decision was I’m going to play golf for the country or the nation that I’ve always played for through my junior and amateur days and now into the professional game."

“Even though the Olympics has given me this choice, there really wasn’t a choice because all I’ve done throughout my life is play golf for Ireland so why would that change just because the tournament has changed? That was my decision," he concluded.

Rory is competing alongside Shane Lowry in the tournament and is looking to rebound from a rough year on the circuit in which he faltered at crucial moments in several tournaments.