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 Paul Smith
One thing for sure......if we are declinging we can take the Qatur route and start buying off some athletes that could help us out: Ferns, Schoeman, Hoogie...........
Isn't that how this whole thing started? In essence wouldn't y'all agree that is what many of our college programs are doing today?
A scholarship and the opportunity to train and compete here is in essence "buying off some athletes that could help us out" (us being the respective college program) which is to the detriment to the US swimming development. 9.9 scholarships is a ludicrous number in itself. If college coaches want to use that miniscule number on foreign athletes just to help out their programs then shame on them.
If alumni want to support a foreign contingency to "help out" their program fine, but I am firmly in the camp that we are ruining this sport and others as well by using these NCAA sanctioned scholarships to help out programs.
Kudos to programs like Texas and Stanford (as well as many minor programs) for holding themselves to a higher standard. I am sure they would have had a legitimate shot at Fred Buckets, but they chose Wildeman-Tobriner and Weber-Gale. Did it cost them a potential NCAA title? Maybe, but standards are standards...
Originally posted by Paul Smith
One thing for sure......if we are declinging we can take the Qatur route and start buying off some athletes that could help us out: Ferns, Schoeman, Hoogie...........
Isn't that how this whole thing started? In essence wouldn't y'all agree that is what many of our college programs are doing today?
A scholarship and the opportunity to train and compete here is in essence "buying off some athletes that could help us out" (us being the respective college program) which is to the detriment to the US swimming development. 9.9 scholarships is a ludicrous number in itself. If college coaches want to use that miniscule number on foreign athletes just to help out their programs then shame on them.
If alumni want to support a foreign contingency to "help out" their program fine, but I am firmly in the camp that we are ruining this sport and others as well by using these NCAA sanctioned scholarships to help out programs.
Kudos to programs like Texas and Stanford (as well as many minor programs) for holding themselves to a higher standard. I am sure they would have had a legitimate shot at Fred Buckets, but they chose Wildeman-Tobriner and Weber-Gale. Did it cost them a potential NCAA title? Maybe, but standards are standards...
