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
Admittedly I haven't read all the posts in this thread so please excuse me if this has already been answered. What is the percentage of scholarships held by foreign swimmers? It's probably fair to say too that these scholarships aren't given away because of some sense of charity. Rather I suspect it is because that particular university sees that foreign swimmer fitting into their programme/team better than anyone else they can get their hands on. I suspect it's win/win as far as the swimmer and university are concerned, not all take on the swimmer's part. Interestingly where I live, in a town of just over 100,000 people their are three professional swim coaches. One each from South Africa, The Netherlands and the USA. All part of the way things are now.
Admittedly I haven't read all the posts in this thread so please excuse me if this has already been answered. What is the percentage of scholarships held by foreign swimmers? It's probably fair to say too that these scholarships aren't given away because of some sense of charity. Rather I suspect it is because that particular university sees that foreign swimmer fitting into their programme/team better than anyone else they can get their hands on. I suspect it's win/win as far as the swimmer and university are concerned, not all take on the swimmer's part. Interestingly where I live, in a town of just over 100,000 people their are three professional swim coaches. One each from South Africa, The Netherlands and the USA. All part of the way things are now.
