Foreign swimmers training in the U.S.

Former Member
Former Member
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.
Parents
  • Sports is a leisure time activity, war is not. I don't think your son, if he's good enough for a D-I scholarship, will be turned down for a foreigner. That's far fetched. Any swimmer who can get a D-1 scholarship can probably go to any school they want. Funny how liberal democrats these days want to close the borders but republicans believe in free trade, patriotism and a free market economy. I guess we shold probably set up another gov't program to dictate who goes to college and who gets the scholarship cause that certainly works well. Makes me wonder why I'm still a registered democrat.
Reply
  • Sports is a leisure time activity, war is not. I don't think your son, if he's good enough for a D-I scholarship, will be turned down for a foreigner. That's far fetched. Any swimmer who can get a D-1 scholarship can probably go to any school they want. Funny how liberal democrats these days want to close the borders but republicans believe in free trade, patriotism and a free market economy. I guess we shold probably set up another gov't program to dictate who goes to college and who gets the scholarship cause that certainly works well. Makes me wonder why I'm still a registered democrat.
Children
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