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.
A couple of points of clarification:
- Any athlete that wants to come her and train who pays their own way I have no problem with..........however I do have a problem with our subsidizing this training via college scholoraships (which are often paid for with tax dollars to the university).
- I do have a problem with the Olympics allowing athletes to compete for any country that pays them but does not require them to have citizenship..........contrary to Phil's position of wanting all sports to be about individuals vs. countries or teams. (PS: geek........as far as I know both Duncan and Lenny obtained citizenship here....!!)
- Geek......I'll check my stats but can assure you that a lot of the Kenyons dominating running events train here in the US, again I don't have any issue with that if their country is paying the way or their using their own funds.
PS: so how do you feel about the ice skating couple from the US who they just found out one is an illegal alien........?A whole nother topic there eh?!
A couple of points of clarification:
- Any athlete that wants to come her and train who pays their own way I have no problem with..........however I do have a problem with our subsidizing this training via college scholoraships (which are often paid for with tax dollars to the university).
- I do have a problem with the Olympics allowing athletes to compete for any country that pays them but does not require them to have citizenship..........contrary to Phil's position of wanting all sports to be about individuals vs. countries or teams. (PS: geek........as far as I know both Duncan and Lenny obtained citizenship here....!!)
- Geek......I'll check my stats but can assure you that a lot of the Kenyons dominating running events train here in the US, again I don't have any issue with that if their country is paying the way or their using their own funds.
PS: so how do you feel about the ice skating couple from the US who they just found out one is an illegal alien........?A whole nother topic there eh?!
