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
Sam, if it is the case that a national champion at the high school level can't get a top level scholarship then I will readily concede there is a problem. But since there are Americans getting scholarships, if the national champions aren't getting them who is and why?
needs to go to a program where he will race every day those current world class swimmers.
Isn't there a problem if you replace the world class swimmers that he needs to race against with other not yet world class swimmers just like him?
In a sport like swimming with so many events and so much event specialization is it realistic to limit a program to, for example, two world class foreign swimmers? Does that mean all the people not swimming the events of those two swimmers are deprived of the opportunity to train with currently world class swimmers resulting in a highly specialized program?
Sam, if it is the case that a national champion at the high school level can't get a top level scholarship then I will readily concede there is a problem. But since there are Americans getting scholarships, if the national champions aren't getting them who is and why?
needs to go to a program where he will race every day those current world class swimmers.
Isn't there a problem if you replace the world class swimmers that he needs to race against with other not yet world class swimmers just like him?
In a sport like swimming with so many events and so much event specialization is it realistic to limit a program to, for example, two world class foreign swimmers? Does that mean all the people not swimming the events of those two swimmers are deprived of the opportunity to train with currently world class swimmers resulting in a highly specialized program?
