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.
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Former Member
Thanks, bud. As you said, no national bundaries here. What really matters here is swimming. Actually I just started learning how to swim. This forum are too advanced for me and I cannot find a forum for new starters. But I enjoy reading the posts here even though I do not have a clue about the techniques most of the time(partly because they are too advanced and the language is also a problem). My feeling is that, wow, can I someday master such advanced techniques? This could aspire me to practise more and harder, which I think is fun and exciting.
I do not know this IWMN philosophy. Is it really a fundamental point of USA? We also have the similar philosophy here. But it cannot be regarded as a fundamental one in any way. Good point, and good attitude, but you are overlooking one fundamental point: in the USA it is all about instant gratification. This “I want mine now” philosophy has, does, and will continue to get us in a lot of trouble.
I welcome you to this message board as well. It does have a lot of great info, and can at times be very entertaining. And there are no national boundaries on this forum, which I think is pretty cool too.
Thanks, bud. As you said, no national bundaries here. What really matters here is swimming. Actually I just started learning how to swim. This forum are too advanced for me and I cannot find a forum for new starters. But I enjoy reading the posts here even though I do not have a clue about the techniques most of the time(partly because they are too advanced and the language is also a problem). My feeling is that, wow, can I someday master such advanced techniques? This could aspire me to practise more and harder, which I think is fun and exciting.
I do not know this IWMN philosophy. Is it really a fundamental point of USA? We also have the similar philosophy here. But it cannot be regarded as a fundamental one in any way. Good point, and good attitude, but you are overlooking one fundamental point: in the USA it is all about instant gratification. This “I want mine now” philosophy has, does, and will continue to get us in a lot of trouble.
I welcome you to this message board as well. It does have a lot of great info, and can at times be very entertaining. And there are no national boundaries on this forum, which I think is pretty cool too.
