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
There has yet to be a single compelling argument for why we should not give foreign students a scholarship or two.
Um, for public universities, how about that foreign students haven't been paying taxes, which these instutitions receive a chunk of?
And one of the original beefs was with foreigners making up 50% of a US collegiate team. If a number of scholarships are available, then a scholarship or two should be open for foreign students, with more scholarships possibly available if an institution receives donations from foreign companies.
Once again, there is no issue with foreigners training here. The issue is with us, the taxpayers, paying for them to train here.
Just out of curiosity, you ever hear of the Rhodes (sp ?) scholarship? It is possibly the most coveted scholarship in the world.
I didn't realize that you could be selected for this based on swimming. Maybe I need to re-read their selection criteria.
Originally posted by aquageek
There has yet to be a single compelling argument for why we should not give foreign students a scholarship or two.
Um, for public universities, how about that foreign students haven't been paying taxes, which these instutitions receive a chunk of?
And one of the original beefs was with foreigners making up 50% of a US collegiate team. If a number of scholarships are available, then a scholarship or two should be open for foreign students, with more scholarships possibly available if an institution receives donations from foreign companies.
Once again, there is no issue with foreigners training here. The issue is with us, the taxpayers, paying for them to train here.
Just out of curiosity, you ever hear of the Rhodes (sp ?) scholarship? It is possibly the most coveted scholarship in the world.
I didn't realize that you could be selected for this based on swimming. Maybe I need to re-read their selection criteria.
