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.
Peter,
In talking about this over the weekend with a fomer Div I coach he again brought up the huge problem of lack of boys swimmers coming up thru the age group ranks here in the US, somethng evil-goodsmith has brought up in prior threads as well.
I can see both sides of the debate over foreign swimmers and have fanned the flames from time to time here.....and will again.
Although right now USS swimming needs to completely overhaul its recruiment of young boys to our sport, as long as scholorships at colleges are given to foreign swimmers at the expense of a (possibly) less developed US talent I don't think we'll turn things around very quickly.
Personally I'd like to see the NCAA impose the same types of restrictions some Euro pro teams do on foreigners, Volleyball for example allows two "foreign" players per team.
I say allow fully funded US schools 2 full rides for foreign swimmers, more can attend if they like but would have to pay for themselves or get funding from their own governments (who ultimately benefit from a US education when returning to work in their home countries).
Peter,
In talking about this over the weekend with a fomer Div I coach he again brought up the huge problem of lack of boys swimmers coming up thru the age group ranks here in the US, somethng evil-goodsmith has brought up in prior threads as well.
I can see both sides of the debate over foreign swimmers and have fanned the flames from time to time here.....and will again.
Although right now USS swimming needs to completely overhaul its recruiment of young boys to our sport, as long as scholorships at colleges are given to foreign swimmers at the expense of a (possibly) less developed US talent I don't think we'll turn things around very quickly.
Personally I'd like to see the NCAA impose the same types of restrictions some Euro pro teams do on foreigners, Volleyball for example allows two "foreign" players per team.
I say allow fully funded US schools 2 full rides for foreign swimmers, more can attend if they like but would have to pay for themselves or get funding from their own governments (who ultimately benefit from a US education when returning to work in their home countries).
