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.
Obviously those swimmers are covered, but if you ask
"are there any swimmers who could score points at NCAA's who either walked on or received particial scholarships, who might have received more if their team hadn't given scholarships to foreign athletes?"
the answer has to be
YES
Each team only has 9.9 scholarships to allocate.
Ande
Originally posted by Phil Arcuni
Can any one tell me that any American 17 year old swimmers that have a chance at medaling in the Olympics can not or have not gotten scholarships to a good swimming university?
Anticipating that the answer is no, then any additional scholarships (those given after the ones to deserving American swimmers) will go to second tier non-internationally competitive swimmers. Why should my tax dollars be spent on second tier swimmers? So that some university will win more meets? I would rather give the money to the philosophy department.
I would rather that my tax dollars be spent on world class swimmers who will provide competition and training stress to the best American swimmers. That will make American swimmers better!
For that matter, I resent it when Cal gives scholarships to Texan or North Carolinean swimmers. These scholarships are paid by *my* tax dollars, not theirs!
Obviously those swimmers are covered, but if you ask
"are there any swimmers who could score points at NCAA's who either walked on or received particial scholarships, who might have received more if their team hadn't given scholarships to foreign athletes?"
the answer has to be
YES
Each team only has 9.9 scholarships to allocate.
Ande
Originally posted by Phil Arcuni
Can any one tell me that any American 17 year old swimmers that have a chance at medaling in the Olympics can not or have not gotten scholarships to a good swimming university?
Anticipating that the answer is no, then any additional scholarships (those given after the ones to deserving American swimmers) will go to second tier non-internationally competitive swimmers. Why should my tax dollars be spent on second tier swimmers? So that some university will win more meets? I would rather give the money to the philosophy department.
I would rather that my tax dollars be spent on world class swimmers who will provide competition and training stress to the best American swimmers. That will make American swimmers better!
For that matter, I resent it when Cal gives scholarships to Texan or North Carolinean swimmers. These scholarships are paid by *my* tax dollars, not theirs!
