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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The question is, what is the role of the federal gov't? The founding fathers had their view (which was the point of my reference), you have yours. If there were a simple solution to healthcare, we would have seen it already. But as I have previously posted, if socialized medicine is the answer, why are other countries now exploring privitization?
What this has to do with foreign athletes is becoming a bit fuzzy, unless of course they need a rotator cuff repair (in which case they can always return home and wait six months for elective surgery).
The question is, what is the role of the federal gov't? The founding fathers had their view (which was the point of my reference), you have yours. If there were a simple solution to healthcare, we would have seen it already. But as I have previously posted, if socialized medicine is the answer, why are other countries now exploring privitization?
What this has to do with foreign athletes is becoming a bit fuzzy, unless of course they need a rotator cuff repair (in which case they can always return home and wait six months for elective surgery).