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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ok, GEEK, I will give you examples on how a good specialist can contribute to "a new home" and how by losing that specialist the country he moved from loses too.And I will even use swimming as an example!!!Andrey Vorontsov, one of the most brilliant swim coaches Russia had moved to UK to becomethat country's head coach.Since 2000 his swimmers produced 7 UK records, 3 women relay records, 4 junior records, 2 open water records.His swimmer Robert Francis got silver at 2004 worlds and 2003 Europian championship(both SCM) in 400IM.His swimer Alan Bircher is a frequent marathon medal swimmer...
Then there's Aleksandr Seleznev, another great soviet coach, who played a major role in success of Russian(or then CIS) swimmers in Barcelona in 1992.Well he went on to first become the head coach of the national team of Egypt.Under his command his swimmers won the junior all-African championship and then placed second in the main all-african swimming championship, success never known to Egyptian swimming.His swimmer Tamer Zenhum produced a 22.25 50 m freestyle, second time in the world back then (1995).Then Aleksandr moved from Egypt to become one of Croatia's lead coaches and Tamer Zenhum never matched his result again...While in Croatia under Aleksandr's coaching he had Gordan Kozulj to be world and europian champion in backstroke both SCM and LCM 2000-2001, Ante Mashkovich became the europian champ in 50m back in valencia, etc...
What I am trying to say here, that it's not that those guys did not have a job back home, they were just not offered the same as in other countries where they contributed a lot and by leaving Russia they sure did not contribute to Russian swimming, and they took their families with them, so their money is not going back to Russia to help its economy...And that is the case with most good specialists who leave Russia(to US or not)...
ok, GEEK, I will give you examples on how a good specialist can contribute to "a new home" and how by losing that specialist the country he moved from loses too.And I will even use swimming as an example!!!Andrey Vorontsov, one of the most brilliant swim coaches Russia had moved to UK to becomethat country's head coach.Since 2000 his swimmers produced 7 UK records, 3 women relay records, 4 junior records, 2 open water records.His swimmer Robert Francis got silver at 2004 worlds and 2003 Europian championship(both SCM) in 400IM.His swimer Alan Bircher is a frequent marathon medal swimmer...
Then there's Aleksandr Seleznev, another great soviet coach, who played a major role in success of Russian(or then CIS) swimmers in Barcelona in 1992.Well he went on to first become the head coach of the national team of Egypt.Under his command his swimmers won the junior all-African championship and then placed second in the main all-african swimming championship, success never known to Egyptian swimming.His swimmer Tamer Zenhum produced a 22.25 50 m freestyle, second time in the world back then (1995).Then Aleksandr moved from Egypt to become one of Croatia's lead coaches and Tamer Zenhum never matched his result again...While in Croatia under Aleksandr's coaching he had Gordan Kozulj to be world and europian champion in backstroke both SCM and LCM 2000-2001, Ante Mashkovich became the europian champ in 50m back in valencia, etc...
What I am trying to say here, that it's not that those guys did not have a job back home, they were just not offered the same as in other countries where they contributed a lot and by leaving Russia they sure did not contribute to Russian swimming, and they took their families with them, so their money is not going back to Russia to help its economy...And that is the case with most good specialists who leave Russia(to US or not)...
