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.
Parents
Former Member
Dennis Tesch,
Nice response ..... however,
1. With the limited number of available swimming sholarships most teams divide their money in fractions between swimmers. Only the best of the best usually get a full ride these days. I am not surprised that you had practically no foreign swimmers on full ride during your coaching term. None the less, I applaud this fact.
2. Recruiting for a mid level division I school is slightly different than recruiting at the top 10 division I schools. Great talent to support the top ten teams gets even more scarce and more competitive to come by. It is not surprising that coaches give up now and then and turn abroad for better swimmers... not that I personally approve of it. And Im not saying that mid level division one schools don't have an occasional finalist at "the show" or someone that is a real "player" and scores points. But you must have certainly struggled to get top notch domestic talent while you were recruiting each year. If American pass on money you offered then they obviously don't need it enough. I think this discussion starts to split into a tier I vs. a larger tier II talent pool at some point.
3. I submit to you that the foreign athletes that you say come here for mostly an education are usually not the talented ones that are competing against our 400 free relay members at the Olympics. Again, we begin to split the discussion from tier I to tier II players at NCAAs.
4. Sounds like many of your foreigners were well enough off to attend an American university on their own dime.
5. Swimming and lessor revenue sports would probably die a slow death if colleges divested themselves from athletics.
John Smith
Reply
Former Member
Dennis Tesch,
Nice response ..... however,
1. With the limited number of available swimming sholarships most teams divide their money in fractions between swimmers. Only the best of the best usually get a full ride these days. I am not surprised that you had practically no foreign swimmers on full ride during your coaching term. None the less, I applaud this fact.
2. Recruiting for a mid level division I school is slightly different than recruiting at the top 10 division I schools. Great talent to support the top ten teams gets even more scarce and more competitive to come by. It is not surprising that coaches give up now and then and turn abroad for better swimmers... not that I personally approve of it. And Im not saying that mid level division one schools don't have an occasional finalist at "the show" or someone that is a real "player" and scores points. But you must have certainly struggled to get top notch domestic talent while you were recruiting each year. If American pass on money you offered then they obviously don't need it enough. I think this discussion starts to split into a tier I vs. a larger tier II talent pool at some point.
3. I submit to you that the foreign athletes that you say come here for mostly an education are usually not the talented ones that are competing against our 400 free relay members at the Olympics. Again, we begin to split the discussion from tier I to tier II players at NCAAs.
4. Sounds like many of your foreigners were well enough off to attend an American university on their own dime.
5. Swimming and lessor revenue sports would probably die a slow death if colleges divested themselves from athletics.
John Smith
