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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  • Originally posted by some_girl Americans pay less in taxes than almost any other advanced nation. Are you saying that a sign of an advanced nation is the tax burden on it's citizens? Isn't one of the reasons the colonies had their little war was the whole concept of taxation? Why is it more ethical for you to pay more taxes than for me to pay less taxes? Is there some arbitrary percentage where you can take the moral high ground on taxation but I can't by paying less? Is it OK for me to give to charitable organizations that use their money wisely in addition to my tax load? I do believe the country recently roundly repudiated the notion that in order to be a better nation we have to tax ourselves to death.
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  • Originally posted by some_girl Americans pay less in taxes than almost any other advanced nation. Are you saying that a sign of an advanced nation is the tax burden on it's citizens? Isn't one of the reasons the colonies had their little war was the whole concept of taxation? Why is it more ethical for you to pay more taxes than for me to pay less taxes? Is there some arbitrary percentage where you can take the moral high ground on taxation but I can't by paying less? Is it OK for me to give to charitable organizations that use their money wisely in addition to my tax load? I do believe the country recently roundly repudiated the notion that in order to be a better nation we have to tax ourselves to death.
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