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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Originally posted by gull80
But if what Lindsay says is true, namely that the foreign swimmers won't attend US colleges without a scholarship, presumably because of the cost (?), then we can assume that there are American swimmers in a similar position (who don't have the option of attending a free (?) university in Europe).
In a similar position except for not being Olympic caliber.
As I said early on in the thread, people who do not agree on the purpose of athletic scholarships are unlikely to ever come to agreement on who should or should not receive said scholarships. This thread is going in circles.
It's like trying to argue about the Olympics with some of the people working from the assumption that it is about personal excellence while others are working from the assumption it is about competition between nations...
Originally posted by gull80
But if what Lindsay says is true, namely that the foreign swimmers won't attend US colleges without a scholarship, presumably because of the cost (?), then we can assume that there are American swimmers in a similar position (who don't have the option of attending a free (?) university in Europe).
In a similar position except for not being Olympic caliber.
As I said early on in the thread, people who do not agree on the purpose of athletic scholarships are unlikely to ever come to agreement on who should or should not receive said scholarships. This thread is going in circles.
It's like trying to argue about the Olympics with some of the people working from the assumption that it is about personal excellence while others are working from the assumption it is about competition between nations...
