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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Former Member
Originally posted by hooked-on-swimming
I mean you want to be all fair but close your eyes on America "buying out" the best "brains" in different fields for its own economical growth.
...So America is using the rest of the world pretty darn well(which I have to admit is very smart!!!), so let's not talk about what's fair and what's not!And besides - NCAA would be nothing and would not draw as much attention if you couldn't recruit the best of the best!
OK hear is my 2 cents...
If we did not have an international representation in the States than the Ivy League in New England/Big Universities would loose a big percentages of the great minds at these institutions.
Our swimming program has been awesome for so long that it's a sign of our greatness as a swimming superpower --Russian and China are teaming up to go against the US at the next Olympics... per a swimming article off the USA Swimming web site, and Australia is our major competition after "The Berlin Wall" has gone down in GDR and drugs testing has increased so fast.
We are a very rich country and we LOVE that about ourselves --generally speaking that is. It takes a lot courage to go somewhere else to live, go to school, or train. It says a lot about how we are perceived by others and our lifestyle.
If non American student athletes are receiving scholarships for American universities that are funded by public dollars then there maybe an argument about that. However, private schools can and usually do, spend scholarship monies on who/how they see fit. There is no problem in my view with this practice. It may not be just about the swimming program, but other (albeit political) reasons not to exclude kids studying their butts off or swimming there butts off to get into an American college or university.
Finally, going back to a really simplistic and elementary ideal: Are we all not immigrants and that is the backbone of how this county works?
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Former Member
Originally posted by hooked-on-swimming
I mean you want to be all fair but close your eyes on America "buying out" the best "brains" in different fields for its own economical growth.
...So America is using the rest of the world pretty darn well(which I have to admit is very smart!!!), so let's not talk about what's fair and what's not!And besides - NCAA would be nothing and would not draw as much attention if you couldn't recruit the best of the best!
OK hear is my 2 cents...
If we did not have an international representation in the States than the Ivy League in New England/Big Universities would loose a big percentages of the great minds at these institutions.
Our swimming program has been awesome for so long that it's a sign of our greatness as a swimming superpower --Russian and China are teaming up to go against the US at the next Olympics... per a swimming article off the USA Swimming web site, and Australia is our major competition after "The Berlin Wall" has gone down in GDR and drugs testing has increased so fast.
We are a very rich country and we LOVE that about ourselves --generally speaking that is. It takes a lot courage to go somewhere else to live, go to school, or train. It says a lot about how we are perceived by others and our lifestyle.
If non American student athletes are receiving scholarships for American universities that are funded by public dollars then there maybe an argument about that. However, private schools can and usually do, spend scholarship monies on who/how they see fit. There is no problem in my view with this practice. It may not be just about the swimming program, but other (albeit political) reasons not to exclude kids studying their butts off or swimming there butts off to get into an American college or university.
Finally, going back to a really simplistic and elementary ideal: Are we all not immigrants and that is the backbone of how this county works?