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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Former Member
Originally posted by some_girl
Geek and Gull, have you been to a hospital that serves only poor communities, say the one that serves Bed-Stuy, Williamsburg, and parts of Bushwick, Brooklyn (all poor neighborhoods, though the second is gentrifying quickly)?
I trained in Houston and spent quite a bit of time at Ben Taub, the county hospital. What I saw were dedicated physicians working long hours to deliver quality care to indigent patients. Ben Taub is a Level I trauma center and is considered the place to go if you're shot, stabbed or in a motor vehicle accident (the private hospitals aren't nearly as well-equipped to handle those problems). Sorry if that doesn't fit your view of the American healthcare system.
Originally posted by some_girl
Geek and Gull, have you been to a hospital that serves only poor communities, say the one that serves Bed-Stuy, Williamsburg, and parts of Bushwick, Brooklyn (all poor neighborhoods, though the second is gentrifying quickly)?
I trained in Houston and spent quite a bit of time at Ben Taub, the county hospital. What I saw were dedicated physicians working long hours to deliver quality care to indigent patients. Ben Taub is a Level I trauma center and is considered the place to go if you're shot, stabbed or in a motor vehicle accident (the private hospitals aren't nearly as well-equipped to handle those problems). Sorry if that doesn't fit your view of the American healthcare system.
