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.
It is a simpleton idea that you can only give scholarship dollars at American universities to Americans. The world just isn't that simple anymore and hasn't been probably since before WWII.
Let me give an example. The South is full of foreign auto makers employing tens of thousands of US citizens (BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Honda). These companies contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to the US economy and the US, in turn, buys a bunch of their vehicles. In turn, some of the innovative production processes they have will force our outdated and inefficient domestic producers to improve. This is called competition and everyone benefits. For those wanting to close our borders, the implications are beyond that of a few swimming scholarships.
I'm not sure there is any valid argument as to why we want to limit the comptetion college students receive. We should want our students to face the stiffest competition they can so that when they leave school, they are ready for the real world, not some artificially imposed closed border real world they saw in college.
It is a simpleton idea that you can only give scholarship dollars at American universities to Americans. The world just isn't that simple anymore and hasn't been probably since before WWII.
Let me give an example. The South is full of foreign auto makers employing tens of thousands of US citizens (BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Honda). These companies contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to the US economy and the US, in turn, buys a bunch of their vehicles. In turn, some of the innovative production processes they have will force our outdated and inefficient domestic producers to improve. This is called competition and everyone benefits. For those wanting to close our borders, the implications are beyond that of a few swimming scholarships.
I'm not sure there is any valid argument as to why we want to limit the comptetion college students receive. We should want our students to face the stiffest competition they can so that when they leave school, they are ready for the real world, not some artificially imposed closed border real world they saw in college.
