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
Former Member
I suppose we've beaten the topic to death since we've moved on to other things...but, I've been wanting to relate this story from my home state to those who are unfamiliar.
The U. of Nebraska mens' swimming team used to be pretty good. They regularly won conference titles in the old Big 8 and had some top 10 NCAA finishes. The men's program was terminated a number of years ago, which is a story in and of itself.
Nebraska's success was largely a product of it's international swimmers, including athletes from South Africa, Australia, Canada and Europe. In the late 1980's and into the 1990's, some of these foreign athletes had a lot of success in international competition. One was a South African named Peter Williams, who briefly held the 50 LCM free record (much to the chagrin of Biondi and Jager, because he set the record in a time trial). Another swimmer was South African Penny Heynes. She was better known because she held both breaststroke world records and was a double Olympic gold winner in 1996.
You might think that being a native Nebraskan and life long fan of all Nebraska sports (even though I didn't attend Nebraska), I would be proud of these accomplishments. Certainly the University promoted those swimmers. But, I never felt good about it, and even felt embarrassed, because I knew the training, coaching, and financial support provided by the University lead directly to these swimmers' success at the expense of U.S. swimmers who finished below them at international competitions. Furthermore, the scholarships they received didn't go to promising local swimmers, people I had competed with and against in high school. I never felt any animosity towards the individual swimmers who were on scholarship. They were certainly nice people and I got along fine with them--they were only taking advantage of an opportunity offered to them.
I can tell you that people who supported the team in various ways, financially, as volunteers, etc. were not happy that so many scholarships went to non-U.S. swimmers. Certainly the international student-athletes at Nebraska were given opportunities they might not have had otherwise. But, shouldn't those opportunities go preferentially to U.S. swimmers? None of the many foreign swimmers who came to Nebraska ever became U.S. citizens and competed for the United States.
I suppose we've beaten the topic to death since we've moved on to other things...but, I've been wanting to relate this story from my home state to those who are unfamiliar.
The U. of Nebraska mens' swimming team used to be pretty good. They regularly won conference titles in the old Big 8 and had some top 10 NCAA finishes. The men's program was terminated a number of years ago, which is a story in and of itself.
Nebraska's success was largely a product of it's international swimmers, including athletes from South Africa, Australia, Canada and Europe. In the late 1980's and into the 1990's, some of these foreign athletes had a lot of success in international competition. One was a South African named Peter Williams, who briefly held the 50 LCM free record (much to the chagrin of Biondi and Jager, because he set the record in a time trial). Another swimmer was South African Penny Heynes. She was better known because she held both breaststroke world records and was a double Olympic gold winner in 1996.
You might think that being a native Nebraskan and life long fan of all Nebraska sports (even though I didn't attend Nebraska), I would be proud of these accomplishments. Certainly the University promoted those swimmers. But, I never felt good about it, and even felt embarrassed, because I knew the training, coaching, and financial support provided by the University lead directly to these swimmers' success at the expense of U.S. swimmers who finished below them at international competitions. Furthermore, the scholarships they received didn't go to promising local swimmers, people I had competed with and against in high school. I never felt any animosity towards the individual swimmers who were on scholarship. They were certainly nice people and I got along fine with them--they were only taking advantage of an opportunity offered to them.
I can tell you that people who supported the team in various ways, financially, as volunteers, etc. were not happy that so many scholarships went to non-U.S. swimmers. Certainly the international student-athletes at Nebraska were given opportunities they might not have had otherwise. But, shouldn't those opportunities go preferentially to U.S. swimmers? None of the many foreign swimmers who came to Nebraska ever became U.S. citizens and competed for the United States.
