No American has won an Olympic Marathon since Frank Shorter in 1972 at Munich, and no American marathoner has won an Olympic medal since Shorter's silver at Montreal in '76. Even in their own country Americans have been regularly dusted by outsiders: in the Boston Marathon two weeks ago, the top US finisher, Jamie Hibell, was 24th. Greg Meyer, in 1983, was the last home-grown Boston winner.

The prognosis for American runners in Sydney, then, seemed grim indeed, or at least it did until this past Tuesday morning, when 28-year-old Khalid Khannouchi raised his right hand, took the Oath of Allegiance and became a United States citizen. All of a sudden things are looking up for the Stars and Stripes.

Khannouchi is, quite simply, the world's best practising marathoner. That he was until two days ago (and still may be) a citizen of Morocco is a matter of small consequence this morning, and if he wins in Australia it won't matter at all. He will be one of our own.

Khannouchi first came to this country in 1993 as a Moroccan representative to the World University Games in Buffalo. Despairing over what he termed a lack of support from the running federation in the land of his birth, he remained in the States, where he blossomed into the world's top distance runner.

Last year he won the Chicago Marathon in 2:05:42, shattering the previous world record by 23 seconds, and beating in the process two-time Boston Marathon winner Moses Tanui by better than half a minute.

Last month he finished third, in 2:08, in the London Marathon, despite competing with an ankle injury that has still not healed.

For the past year or two Khannouchi has been trying almost as hard to become an American as the US federation was to make him one, but even a few weeks ago those efforts seemed destined to end in futility.

In 1996 he had married an American, Sandra Inoa, whom he met at a Hartford road race. That helped with the green card, but didn't get him any closer to citizenship. The Immigration and Naturalization Service shrugged and told him in essence that as much as they'd like to help, their hands were tied by regulations.

There was even talk of legislative action to fast-track a special bill though congress which would make Khannouchi a citizen, but upon reflection that proved to be a potential can of worms nobody wanted to open. Eventually the word trickled down from on high: Khannouchi's application would be treated the same as that of any other prospective citizen, which pretty much seemed to rule out Sydney 2000.

Then last month, in what may have been the most important naturalisation discovery since Jack Charlton found out Tony Cascarino had an Irish grandmother, someone unearthed an arcane loophole in the regulations: a spouse of an American citizen employed overseas was somehow entitled to an expedited process.

Voila! Tim Murphy of Elite Racing offered Sandra a job as an "assistant elite co-ordinator and race promoter" which would require her to take up residence in Madrid. This in turn moved her husband's application to the front burner, and from there Khannouchi's arduous citizenship marathon turned into a sprint.

This morning marked the deadline for entering Sunday's US marathon trials in Pittsburgh. On Monday Khannouchi flew from Spain to Texas. On Tuesday he completed a citizenship interview with an INS official, passed a test on American history, and joined 2,000 other new citizens who were simultaneously sworn in at an auditorium in downtown Houston.

"His US citizenship," explained Marymay Wong, a representative of Khannouchi's Houston-based lawyer Harry Gee, "takes effect immediately."

But becoming a citizen may have only represented half the battle for the newest American. The foot injury which slowed him in London remains a problem, and Khannouchi's physiotherapist was urging him to skip Sunday's Pittsburgh race. Were Khannouchi to follow that course of action, he would still have the option of competing at 10,000 meters, where he would likely be favoured despite a dearth of experience on the track.

Sandra Inoa Khannouchi pointed out that to win a place on the Olympic team, her husband might only have to run 2:12 or so on Sunday - "and he can do that in his sleep."

There is also the possibility that the Moroccan federation could throw a spanner into the works by refusing to release him. According to Olympic regulations, a runner who has represented one country and then changed his citizenship needs the approval of both nations unless three years have passed since his change of allegiance.

That's three years. In Khannouchi's case it has been less than three days.

"The IOC says the World University Games is a bona fide competition in which he represented Morocco, which means to us that he will require a waiver from the Moroccan national Olympic Committee, said USOC spokesman Mike Moran. "Assuming he wins a berth on our team, based on his performance in the trials should he enter them, we will then seek a waiver."

The International Olympic Committee and the International Amateur Athletic Federation must also sign off on the matter, but in Monte Carlo two days ago, IAAF official Georgio Reineri said: "looking at the participation of Khannouchi in competition before becoming a US citizen, I don't see any problem for him."

The long search to discover America's next great marathoner appears to be over. We'll take 'em any way we can get 'em.