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.
You guys have to understand that many of these foreign swimmers were not very good when they go to their colleges. From the way I understand it, people like Simon Burnett and a few of the Auburn kids personally wrote to the coaches to ask if they could go to school there. They weren't initially recruited. Then they get to the school and go lights out.
I've never had a problem wih foreign swimmers training in the US for free with scholarships. If anything, it steps up the game of the Americans they train with.
But if some American student has issue with foreigners swimming in college, there are lots of college teams that have very few foreigners. Michigan and Texas stand out for me. Stanford, too. Their top swimmers are all Americans.
You guys have to understand that many of these foreign swimmers were not very good when they go to their colleges. From the way I understand it, people like Simon Burnett and a few of the Auburn kids personally wrote to the coaches to ask if they could go to school there. They weren't initially recruited. Then they get to the school and go lights out.
I've never had a problem wih foreign swimmers training in the US for free with scholarships. If anything, it steps up the game of the Americans they train with.
But if some American student has issue with foreigners swimming in college, there are lots of college teams that have very few foreigners. Michigan and Texas stand out for me. Stanford, too. Their top swimmers are all Americans.
