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
Former Member
Swim practice can be gruelling.....and so some people will use metaphors like "prison camp" to describe it since we tend to grab at extremes like that to make colorful comparisons.....My coach growing up would use metaphors like that all of the time.....I understand that there are some horrible and unfortunate circumstances right now for soldiers around the world....I have the utmost respect for the young men and women serving in the military....It's gotta be very tough over there indeed!!!.....Even so, I don't think it is necessary for the general public to then become so hyper-sensitive over these kinda word choices when they have been accepted as o.k. for so many years (in the proper context that they are generally intended to be taken in).....I do understand that people have sensitive feelings however about war in general...especially these days......I think people should think of these sports/war type metaphors more in terms ot the context you yourself mentioned...something on the order of physical training and pushing yourself to beat your competitor.....without taking it as a "literal" comparison between sports competition and the life and death type competition associated to a real war ...thats all. Anyway....lets just leave it at that b/c I don't really want to say anything else about it....I hope you and others haven't taken too much offense to my views on the subject....I apologize to anyone that may have been offended by my remarks.
Newmastersswimmer
Swim practice can be gruelling.....and so some people will use metaphors like "prison camp" to describe it since we tend to grab at extremes like that to make colorful comparisons.....My coach growing up would use metaphors like that all of the time.....I understand that there are some horrible and unfortunate circumstances right now for soldiers around the world....I have the utmost respect for the young men and women serving in the military....It's gotta be very tough over there indeed!!!.....Even so, I don't think it is necessary for the general public to then become so hyper-sensitive over these kinda word choices when they have been accepted as o.k. for so many years (in the proper context that they are generally intended to be taken in).....I do understand that people have sensitive feelings however about war in general...especially these days......I think people should think of these sports/war type metaphors more in terms ot the context you yourself mentioned...something on the order of physical training and pushing yourself to beat your competitor.....without taking it as a "literal" comparison between sports competition and the life and death type competition associated to a real war ...thats all. Anyway....lets just leave it at that b/c I don't really want to say anything else about it....I hope you and others haven't taken too much offense to my views on the subject....I apologize to anyone that may have been offended by my remarks.
Newmastersswimmer
