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 aquageek
I have no expertise in the area of Russian swimmers in the UK or foreign dishwashers, nor what that has to do with US college scholarships.
You are awfully tough on America, which is the best thing going.
You obviously did not read my post very carefully:I never mentioned a word about russian swimmers in UK, I was talking about Russian coaches working for other nations and you do not have to have any expertise in the dishwashing area(its not like I do) to know that American businesses have it set with cheap illegal mexican labor(and I am not trying to be offensive, it's just reality).I apologize if I came around being tough on America, which I really am not, just trying to stand up for foreigners as myself who came to this country with good intentions.After all you have to admit, America is a melting pot...I agree I kinda deviated from the main discussion but it is related in a way - it all to the question of fair or not fair...So I brought up the whole foreign thing trying to show that foregners coming here are not necessarily eating off "an American plate" and not giving anything back.Think about it this way:by setting the high-level standard of the competition more and more swimmers will try to reach higher goals in their training and match that kinda level.You did not think about the following:maybe America is ranked in swimming that high due to that constant drive for perfection that NCAA dictates its swimmers.We all know from simple training experience, that when you train with someone who is better that you are you try to match him or beat him, it gives you a stimulus to work out harder, maybe you are being negative to something that actually created American supremacy in swimming.
Originally posted by aquageek
I have no expertise in the area of Russian swimmers in the UK or foreign dishwashers, nor what that has to do with US college scholarships.
You are awfully tough on America, which is the best thing going.
You obviously did not read my post very carefully:I never mentioned a word about russian swimmers in UK, I was talking about Russian coaches working for other nations and you do not have to have any expertise in the dishwashing area(its not like I do) to know that American businesses have it set with cheap illegal mexican labor(and I am not trying to be offensive, it's just reality).I apologize if I came around being tough on America, which I really am not, just trying to stand up for foreigners as myself who came to this country with good intentions.After all you have to admit, America is a melting pot...I agree I kinda deviated from the main discussion but it is related in a way - it all to the question of fair or not fair...So I brought up the whole foreign thing trying to show that foregners coming here are not necessarily eating off "an American plate" and not giving anything back.Think about it this way:by setting the high-level standard of the competition more and more swimmers will try to reach higher goals in their training and match that kinda level.You did not think about the following:maybe America is ranked in swimming that high due to that constant drive for perfection that NCAA dictates its swimmers.We all know from simple training experience, that when you train with someone who is better that you are you try to match him or beat him, it gives you a stimulus to work out harder, maybe you are being negative to something that actually created American supremacy in swimming.
