Just curious. There's a list here of nationally ranked athletes who are thought to have defected during the Olympic Games, some of them to the UK:
www.olympedia.org/lists/125/manual
Presumably other major international sporting events have defectors too. My question is, in the UK, what is the athlete's status from a legal perspective? Are they an "illegal immigrant"? Do they have to put in an asylum claim in order to be allowed to stay? Or is there a formal immigration fast-track for athletes? (I'm guessing the answer to the latter must be no, or it would cause ructions between nations).
Also, if a defecting athlete has a uk "sponsor", giving them somewhere to stay, is the sponsor in breach of any laws?