There has been a lot of discussion since Athens about foreign swimmers training in the United States. Most of them attend U.S. Universities, receive athletic scholarships, and compete at NCAA's. Some notable examples include Duje Draganja (Cal), Fred Bousquet and Kirsty Coventry (Auburn), Markus Rogan (Stanford), and the South African sprinters (Arizona). Some train in the U.S., but don't compete for a university (Inge de Bruijn). All of these athletes benefit from U.S. coaching, from training with U.S. swimmers, and in some cases, from financial support provided by U.S. entities (athletic scholarships). They all turn around and then win medals for other countries.
A couple questions: 1) What do you think about this arrangement generally? 2) Is it of benefit or detriment to U.S. swimming to have these foreign athletes training and competing here? 3) Should we be giving athletic scholarships, which are a scarce resource in swimming, to foreign athletes who will represent their own countries internationally instead of U.S.-born swimmers who will represent us internationally?
I'm sure there are other issues, but these come directly to mind.
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Originally posted by justforfun
Should we be giving athletic scholarships, which are a scarce resource in swimming, to foreign athletes who will represent their own countries internationally instead of U.S.-born swimmers who will represent us internationally?
What about the US swimmers that spend time abroad, swimming in places like Australia? Isn't that sort of the same thing?
And, I thought scholarships, scarce or not, were given to students to attend university based on their swimming ability, among other things. I believe there's something in our Bill of Rights about not withholding financial aid just because a person originates from another country.
And of course, they have all the right in the world to represent their home countries, even if they swim/attend school here. For crying out loud, if we want to even the scale, make everything "fair", they should go swim for Great Britian, cuz they're certainly coming out the losers on the international swimming circuit, don't you think?
I thought swimming was less selfish, and had a reputation for being better, sportsmanship-wise, than most of the other sports around us.
If you really want to make it fair, let's start requiring all international teams to have an equal number of swimmers, and if they don't have enough, we'll start sending our guys over to swim for them, so that the teams even out, and everybody has a chance. We'll also make sure that everyone trains in the US, to make it fair, and all swimming scholarships will be completely eradicated, so nobody can complain that it wasn't fair.
How's that for ridiculous? It's never going to be fair all the time, and somebody's always going to complain that our US swimmers got cheated by a foreigner, or some foreigner's going to complain that we are unfair to them. That's the beauty of democracy, kids.
Plus, I like Mark Rogan. He's got really nice.....sportsmanship.
Originally posted by justforfun
Should we be giving athletic scholarships, which are a scarce resource in swimming, to foreign athletes who will represent their own countries internationally instead of U.S.-born swimmers who will represent us internationally?
What about the US swimmers that spend time abroad, swimming in places like Australia? Isn't that sort of the same thing?
And, I thought scholarships, scarce or not, were given to students to attend university based on their swimming ability, among other things. I believe there's something in our Bill of Rights about not withholding financial aid just because a person originates from another country.
And of course, they have all the right in the world to represent their home countries, even if they swim/attend school here. For crying out loud, if we want to even the scale, make everything "fair", they should go swim for Great Britian, cuz they're certainly coming out the losers on the international swimming circuit, don't you think?
I thought swimming was less selfish, and had a reputation for being better, sportsmanship-wise, than most of the other sports around us.
If you really want to make it fair, let's start requiring all international teams to have an equal number of swimmers, and if they don't have enough, we'll start sending our guys over to swim for them, so that the teams even out, and everybody has a chance. We'll also make sure that everyone trains in the US, to make it fair, and all swimming scholarships will be completely eradicated, so nobody can complain that it wasn't fair.
How's that for ridiculous? It's never going to be fair all the time, and somebody's always going to complain that our US swimmers got cheated by a foreigner, or some foreigner's going to complain that we are unfair to them. That's the beauty of democracy, kids.
Plus, I like Mark Rogan. He's got really nice.....sportsmanship.
