Winter Olympic hopeful Tatiana Borodulina will be the first athlete to take advantage of new citizenship laws passed by the Australian Parliament today.

The changes will enable the Russian born speed skater to be sworn in as an Australian citizen almost immediately. She must become an Australian citizen by September 22 to be eligible to represent Australia at the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, in February 2010.

“This is tremendous news” said AOC President John Coates.” Without the support of the Federal Immigration Minister, Senator Chris Evans and the Federal Government Tatiana would have been ineligible to compete in Olympic qualifying events starting in November”.

“Tatiana has been living and competing in Australia for over three years and it would have been an absolute travesty if she was denied the chance to compete in the Olympics for her adopted country” he said.

“I want to stress that Tatiana is one of a handful of female short track speed skaters in contention for a place on the Australian Olympic Team, every one has an equal opportunity to qualify, Tatiana is not keeping anyone else out of the Team” Coates said.

Borodulina arrived in Brisbane in July 2006 and missed the cut off point for becoming an Australian citizen by just 18 days. When the act was changed the waiting period was extended from two years to four years. She has been living here ever since and has already passed the Citizenship test.

In the 2008/09 season Borodulina won two gold and a bronze medal on the World Cup circuit to become the first Australian to win a short track World Cup event.

She was a finalist for Russia in the 500 metre speed skating event at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics and is considered a strong medal chance in Vancouver.

The AOC will try and arrange a citizenship ceremony at the Australian Embassy in Korea next week where Borodulina is competing in the latest World Cup skating event.