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.
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  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Aquageek: Train in a top 5 division I school for a few weeks and tell me if you still think sports is a lovely leisure time activity. I can assure you that 14,000+ a day plus weights is closer to a prisoner of war sentence than you might think. For you to say that it would be far fetched for my son to be turned down from his 1st choice school because of a forienger is far fetched represents how little you know about the limited number of scholarships that NCAA mens swimming. It's a joke how few there are available. Let me help you a bit..... simply total the number of foreign athletes at NCAA Div1 championships. That's at least how many scholarships that could have gone to US other citizens. Most of the top NCAA Div. I athletes are on a full ride or something close to it. Try to twist my words... you will not. I never said anything about not letting foriegners go to our schools or crap about "protecting our borders". I said I dont want to better their training and abilities in athletics at our own expense. It's suicidal. John Smith
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  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Aquageek: Train in a top 5 division I school for a few weeks and tell me if you still think sports is a lovely leisure time activity. I can assure you that 14,000+ a day plus weights is closer to a prisoner of war sentence than you might think. For you to say that it would be far fetched for my son to be turned down from his 1st choice school because of a forienger is far fetched represents how little you know about the limited number of scholarships that NCAA mens swimming. It's a joke how few there are available. Let me help you a bit..... simply total the number of foreign athletes at NCAA Div1 championships. That's at least how many scholarships that could have gone to US other citizens. Most of the top NCAA Div. I athletes are on a full ride or something close to it. Try to twist my words... you will not. I never said anything about not letting foriegners go to our schools or crap about "protecting our borders". I said I dont want to better their training and abilities in athletics at our own expense. It's suicidal. John Smith
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