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
  • Dima, I was unaware that I could cross the border illegally into Russia and: attend school, get a drivers license and if sick/injured show up at a hospital emergency room and get free treatment? I think they handle it a bit differently over there! I also encourage to try it in Mexico some time. By the way, the NCAA last year adopted a change to their eligibility rules: for every year you wait after graduating from high school that you do not enroll in college you lose a year of eligibiliy (you also lose a year for every year a person is older than 21). This was pushed thru because of major fuss that came ou of tennis in the college ranks.
Reply
  • Dima, I was unaware that I could cross the border illegally into Russia and: attend school, get a drivers license and if sick/injured show up at a hospital emergency room and get free treatment? I think they handle it a bit differently over there! I also encourage to try it in Mexico some time. By the way, the NCAA last year adopted a change to their eligibility rules: for every year you wait after graduating from high school that you do not enroll in college you lose a year of eligibiliy (you also lose a year for every year a person is older than 21). This was pushed thru because of major fuss that came ou of tennis in the college ranks.
Children
No Data