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.
Craiglll:
I just went to the ASU swim site because I was curious what the % of foreign swimmers were to the total team. On the men's team there was 1 foreigner out of 26 on the roster and he was a freshman. He didn't look to have significant international experience. On the women's team 2 out of 27 were foreign swimmers and both of those swimmers swam in the Olympics for there countries. Agnes Kovacs swam for Hungary and was the gold medalist in 2000 in the 200 *** but got 4th at this Olympics. The other swimmer was Florencia Szigeti of Argentia who swam two events. In the 100 Free took 28th with a :56.71 and in the 200 Free took 25th with a 2:03.29. Significant? I don't think so because there are a lot of USA womens swimmers that could easily do those times. On the other hand Kovacs is a world class swimmer and has been for a long time and was on par with Beard and Kirk thru the years.
Craiglll:
I just went to the ASU swim site because I was curious what the % of foreign swimmers were to the total team. On the men's team there was 1 foreigner out of 26 on the roster and he was a freshman. He didn't look to have significant international experience. On the women's team 2 out of 27 were foreign swimmers and both of those swimmers swam in the Olympics for there countries. Agnes Kovacs swam for Hungary and was the gold medalist in 2000 in the 200 *** but got 4th at this Olympics. The other swimmer was Florencia Szigeti of Argentia who swam two events. In the 100 Free took 28th with a :56.71 and in the 200 Free took 25th with a 2:03.29. Significant? I don't think so because there are a lot of USA womens swimmers that could easily do those times. On the other hand Kovacs is a world class swimmer and has been for a long time and was on par with Beard and Kirk thru the years.