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
Originally posted by Jeff Commings
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.
This very well may be true. To my fault, I have never tracked where a guy like Burnett, half the Auburn team, 3/4 of the ASU team, etc. started and where they are today. I do have a hard time believing that a coach at one of these programs would use one of the very few scholarships they have in the first place on a foreign swimmer if they weren't already top notch.
If a foreign swimmer wants to train and compete here, I have no problem with that at all. So if they show up at the coach's doorstep and ask to swim on their own dime (or their government's money for that matter) fine.
I do think that is a little suspect, because if I were wanting to train and compete with the best here I would go to Texas, Stanford or Michigan depending on my specialty. I have a hard time believing that the best foreign athletes only want to train at Arizona, Auburn, or ASU to get better.
Originally posted by Jeff Commings
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.
This very well may be true. To my fault, I have never tracked where a guy like Burnett, half the Auburn team, 3/4 of the ASU team, etc. started and where they are today. I do have a hard time believing that a coach at one of these programs would use one of the very few scholarships they have in the first place on a foreign swimmer if they weren't already top notch.
If a foreign swimmer wants to train and compete here, I have no problem with that at all. So if they show up at the coach's doorstep and ask to swim on their own dime (or their government's money for that matter) fine.
I do think that is a little suspect, because if I were wanting to train and compete with the best here I would go to Texas, Stanford or Michigan depending on my specialty. I have a hard time believing that the best foreign athletes only want to train at Arizona, Auburn, or ASU to get better.
