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.
Former Member
Terry every post I make is probably considered - Marketing - I do sell the od item from my website, I sell my video analysis, I sell my swim lessons and am developing my own swim machine to sell similar to the endless pool. It is being built now in Mexico and I hope to sell it all over the world. But you mentioned the name I was going to use (Pool In A Box) on your site. Would I infringe by using Pool In a Box.
Oops. Guilty as charged. Let's see that's two "marketing plugs" out of 200+ posts. Do you suppose there's a possibility that, beyond Leiming, there might be other novice swimmers who'd be interested in a forum that is visited by many people with similar concerns?
It's two in the past week, now make it three. I think you shouldn't rely on the USMS discussion forum as part of your business plan. I'm happy to read your philosophies on swimming sans the blatant plugs for your product.
OK, so twice recently, in the past week even, we've gone from talking about TI to marketing TI on this forum. To me, there's a big difference. If you want to market your product, use the private mail feature.
Skip.......
What country won the gold in the 400m free relay at Greece while training a majority of its members at a US college?
The 400m free was one of the last "Americas Cup" achievements for the US. We don't take losing this event lightly.
When the US wins the 400m free relay in Beijing, I will hold my beer high in the air to salute.
Until then........ battles must be won. This is not about friendly international cultural exhanges on the blocks. This race (and the medley) demonstrate the depth, power and superiority of a country's cumulative swimming program. We need to take this event back and grind them into a fine powder.
End of discussion.
John Smith
It remains my mission to implement a northern border limitation on this forum.
Is that a northern border limitation on canada or anyone from above the Mason-Dixon line?
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.
Thank you, Craig. But why can I not say "totally agree with Aquageek"? I really do agree with his view. :confused:
You are welcomed to Beijing anytime you like. Just let me know when you come over and I could be your tour guild. You can also show your swimming skills. But maybe not in the Olympic stadium. :laugh2:
First, welcome to the forum. Your English is quite good. However, you should never, ever say that you "totally agree with Aquageek." People will laugh.
Coaches recruit foreign swimmers for one reason only--to win championships. And I am not convinced that my grandchildren will benefit from the taxes I am paying now. But that's the subject for an entirely different thread.
Perhaps I'll see you in Beijing in 2008--it should be quite a show.
Skip.......
What country won the gold in the 400m free relay at Greece while training a majority of its members at a US college?
The 400m free was one of the last "Americas Cup" achievements for the US. We don't take losing this event lightly.
When the US wins the 400m free relay in Beijing, I will hold my beer high in the air to salute.
Until then........ battles must be won. This is not about friendly international cultural exhanges on the blocks. This race (and the medley) demonstrate the depth, power and superiority of a country's cumulative swimming program. We need to take this event back and grind them into a fine powder.
End of discussion.
John Smith
Mr Goodsmith:
I will always admit that the USA got greased in Greece. And we can all go back and read those threads about healthy Hall and sick Crocker. I really think the USA was surprised at the last two Olympics and the key legs of those losses was the lead off swims. People seem to forget about Michael Klim swimming completely out of his mind and setting a WR of :48.18, which was the second fastest time in history up until 2002. In the individual event he went :48.74 so his margin was enough to get them over the top. I also read that Anthony Erving did not have a good turn and was off on his split just enough to make that small difference. Just think if he could have done the :48.33 which he did the next year at the 2001 Worlds in Fukuoka we might have not lost that relay. Roland Schoeman split of :48.17 put the USA in a two second hole in 2004 that was just about impossible to make up.
Now this year you have to give credit for the USA World Record effort of 3:12.46 which broke the record by .71 and beat South African time of 3:14.97 at the 2006 Commonwealth Games by 2.51 seconds. I don't know if this meets your "grind them into fine powder" but a margin like that isn't even close. And the relay had the same guys on it except Darian Townsend and he was replaced by Jonas Zandberg who was not any slower. The splits are as follows: Schoeman :48.65, Ferns :48.43, Zandberg :49.44, and Neethling :48.45. So they were not swimming that slow individually and they have there major work cut out for them if they even challenge at the 2007 Worlds. I hope they don't make the same lame excuse that they don't have enough guys to field a relay. The USA has thrown down the challenge and until these guys or anybody goes in the 3:12 range, I would favor the USA in 2008. Hopefully we won't have a collapse from the improvement being made in the last two years and have complete team unity which was lacking in 2004.
