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
Just for fun,
I was on one of those Nebraska teams for a semester and swam with Peter as well as the other South Africans and Canadians great guys, but us Americans were definitely second fiddle and maybe we should have been, they were bettter swimmers. I had always felt our rankings and conference titles were hollow due the large amount of foreign swimmers. We were the only program at UNL with so many foreign athletes.
This discussion sure has digressed into political ramblings and differences of opionion that will never be settled on this board.
Again I state my case that if STATE Universities want to support foreign athletes with Alumni money fine. I would love to know how many of these athletes even NEED the scholarships since so many of them are supported by their respective governments any way...
Just for fun,
I was on one of those Nebraska teams for a semester and swam with Peter as well as the other South Africans and Canadians great guys, but us Americans were definitely second fiddle and maybe we should have been, they were bettter swimmers. I had always felt our rankings and conference titles were hollow due the large amount of foreign swimmers. We were the only program at UNL with so many foreign athletes.
This discussion sure has digressed into political ramblings and differences of opionion that will never be settled on this board.
Again I state my case that if STATE Universities want to support foreign athletes with Alumni money fine. I would love to know how many of these athletes even NEED the scholarships since so many of them are supported by their respective governments any way...
