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.
So we have been misinformed on all these posts about who really pays the cost of foreign swimmers training in the U.S.? I didn't know that OSU had the largest athletic budget. I thought it was either Michigan or Texas. But I might be getting that confused with alumni donors that make gifts/establish endowments to the programs athletic budget.
What I find interesting is that the three schools mentioned here all have very succesful football programs with huge stadiums to help there other programs. I don't have the figure off the top my head but I remember the ridiculously inflated figure the networks paid the NCAA to televise the NCAA tournament and the Final Four. I wonder if that money is going back to the schools in any way. This is a very interesting topic about where does the money come from.
Its too bad I didn't see this last week because I saw Bill Wadley at the Michigan/OSU meet last weekend and would have asked him about it. By the way, Bill used to coach Michigan State University many years ago. Maybe Kirk Nelson, who is a frequent visitor here swam for MSU back then when Bill coached.
So we have been misinformed on all these posts about who really pays the cost of foreign swimmers training in the U.S.? I didn't know that OSU had the largest athletic budget. I thought it was either Michigan or Texas. But I might be getting that confused with alumni donors that make gifts/establish endowments to the programs athletic budget.
What I find interesting is that the three schools mentioned here all have very succesful football programs with huge stadiums to help there other programs. I don't have the figure off the top my head but I remember the ridiculously inflated figure the networks paid the NCAA to televise the NCAA tournament and the Final Four. I wonder if that money is going back to the schools in any way. This is a very interesting topic about where does the money come from.
Its too bad I didn't see this last week because I saw Bill Wadley at the Michigan/OSU meet last weekend and would have asked him about it. By the way, Bill used to coach Michigan State University many years ago. Maybe Kirk Nelson, who is a frequent visitor here swam for MSU back then when Bill coached.
