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
Here we go again -- let me start by saying that I am a foreign swimmer that came to the US on a swimming scholarship.
All the so-called arguments about foreign swimmers taking scholarships away and so on are really off-base and very narrowminded.
A couple of things right away:
- any swimmer who has any shot whatsoever of ever representing the US in the Olympics or other international competition will always be able to get a scholarship. In swimming, you know by age 17 or 18 if that person even has the slightest shot of something like that - so that part of the entire argument is just wrong. There are about 40 or so solid division 1 programs, that mean even for the men on average there should be about 100 scholarships each year - if you are not among the top 100 high-schoolswimmers in the nation, let me be the first one to break the news -- you will not make the Olympics.
- the scholarship is a trade: nothing more and nothing less. I will get the education and you will get my ability to swim. I am obligating myself to train 10x per week for 2 1/2 hours in the water, 4 x per week on land , I will be at Christmas training on December 26 at 6:00 AM -- and the university gets my ability to compete in the sport of swimming.
- American swimmers get beat by foreign swimmers training in the US: What are you really crying about ? The US dominates the medal count in swimming. If anything the American swimmers gain from being able to train with the BEST SWIMMERS in the world. Do you think the American sprinters at Auburn suffer from training with Freedie Bousquet ?? Do think the backstrokers at Stanford had a setback when Rogan trained with them ??
- The main reason international swimmers like going to US colleges is not the free education -- schools are basically for free in most European countries. The reason is the ability to combine school and swimming (or trackand field, waterpolo, ....) . Universities in Europe don't really give a "you know what" about sports - they could not care less. You do not hear other countries complaining that the US colleges have (by accident) created a semi-pro system for many Olympic sports.
Here we go again -- let me start by saying that I am a foreign swimmer that came to the US on a swimming scholarship.
All the so-called arguments about foreign swimmers taking scholarships away and so on are really off-base and very narrowminded.
A couple of things right away:
- any swimmer who has any shot whatsoever of ever representing the US in the Olympics or other international competition will always be able to get a scholarship. In swimming, you know by age 17 or 18 if that person even has the slightest shot of something like that - so that part of the entire argument is just wrong. There are about 40 or so solid division 1 programs, that mean even for the men on average there should be about 100 scholarships each year - if you are not among the top 100 high-schoolswimmers in the nation, let me be the first one to break the news -- you will not make the Olympics.
- the scholarship is a trade: nothing more and nothing less. I will get the education and you will get my ability to swim. I am obligating myself to train 10x per week for 2 1/2 hours in the water, 4 x per week on land , I will be at Christmas training on December 26 at 6:00 AM -- and the university gets my ability to compete in the sport of swimming.
- American swimmers get beat by foreign swimmers training in the US: What are you really crying about ? The US dominates the medal count in swimming. If anything the American swimmers gain from being able to train with the BEST SWIMMERS in the world. Do you think the American sprinters at Auburn suffer from training with Freedie Bousquet ?? Do think the backstrokers at Stanford had a setback when Rogan trained with them ??
- The main reason international swimmers like going to US colleges is not the free education -- schools are basically for free in most European countries. The reason is the ability to combine school and swimming (or trackand field, waterpolo, ....) . Universities in Europe don't really give a "you know what" about sports - they could not care less. You do not hear other countries complaining that the US colleges have (by accident) created a semi-pro system for many Olympic sports.
