A pair of American figure skaters is seeking South Korean citizenship to compete here during the 2018 Winter Olympics.
 
The Korea Skating Union (KSU) says Alexander Gamelin and Themistocles Lefttheris applied to the Korean Olympic Committee(KOC) on Monday for fast-track naturalization.
 
Gamelin is the skating partner of South Korean ice dancer Min Yu-ra, and Lefttheris is the partner of South Korea’s Ji Min-ji. Both teams have competed together since June last year in International Skating Union events.
 
Under ISU rules, a team can compete for a country as long as one of the members is a citizen of that country. But under Olympic rules both members must have the same nationality to represent a country.
 
The KSU said it discussed the process with Gamelin and Lefttheris before they applied for naturalization. The union plans to let the two pairs compete in men’s and women’s singles as well as Ice Dance and Fair competitions.
 
Both pairs have yet to skate well in international competition. But there’s a good chance they’ll be able to compete at the Pyeongchang Olympics under rules that allow the host country an automatic birth to the Games.