SALT LAKE CITY — While watching the Olympics, viewers often hear about athletes who are competing for teams other than the country where they were born.

Researchers at the Pew Research Center were curious about exactly how many Sochi Olympians are on teams other than the ones belonging to their birth country and broke down the numbers for the rest of us.

They found that of the 3,000 athletes competing at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, 120 are competing for a team other than their birth country. The country with the most foreign-born athletes on its team is Canada, which has nine members who were born outside of the country. It was followed by Russia and the United States, which are both tied for second place with seven athletes.

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Not all the athletes reported their country of birth, so for analysis purposes the researchers assumed anyone who didn't list one was born in the country they are playing for.

Olympic rules only require that an athlete is a citizen of the country they compete for, so that leaves some room for athletes to choose which team they want to be on. If an athlete has dual citizenship the athlete can pick which team to work with but must wait three years to switch to another country if the athlete has competed internationally for one team.

There are various reasons an athlete might compete for a different country, including ancestry, an opportunity to receive more financial support and a better chance of finding a spot on an Olympic roster.

Notable athletes who have made the switch in recent years include Viktor Ahn, the three-time Olympic gold medalist formerly known as Ahn Hyun, who changed allegiance to the Russian team after falling out with officials in South Korea. He won Russia's first short-track gold medal in the men's 1,000-meter race at Sochi after becoming a Russian national.

The researchers reported that some sports seemed to be more likely to have foreign-born athletes than others. For example, two out of every 10 figure skaters are competing for a country other than the one they were born in.

Israel and Azerbaijan, who have five and four foreign-born athletes respectively, have teams that are completely made up of non-natives.

Countries with the most foreign-born athletes:

• Canada: 9
• Russia: 7
• United States: 7
• France: 6
• Australia: 5
• Germany: 5
• Israel: 5
• Italy: 5
• Azerbaijan: 4
• Belarus: 4
• Ireland: 4

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