As seen on Swiminfo today.......so much for citizenship eh?! And we complain about masters "superteams"!
Draganja Changing Allegiances to Qatar
ZAGREB, Croatia, December 7. WHILE South Africa’s Roland Schoeman has spurned an offer to switch his allegiance to Qatar, the same cannot be said for Croatian Duje Draganja. The sprint sensation, a 24-year-old, recently accepted a lucrative offer to swim for the Middle Eastern nation, which has been chasing high-profile athletes by offering significant sums of money.
Before accepting the offer from Qatar, which is believed to be at least $1 million, Draganja gave Croatian swimming officials the opportunity to keep him swimming under his homeland’s flag. Ultimately, though, the Arab nation won out and Draganja is expected to race for Qatar at next year’s World Short Course Championships in Shanghai, China.
I still stand by my statement that no nation has more future potential talent over the USA in the 400 Free Relay. If you look at the current FINA World Rankings, the USA has more swimmers than any nation ranked in the top ten. Last year with the 3:13.77, which broke the American Record and was only .60 off the World Record.
South Africa didn't even field a team when they could have. With 3/4 of the relay swimming in Montreal and a replacement for Lyndon Ferns they didn't even try. Read the story at
www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/9443.asp That guy, Karl Thaning that did a :49.25 split in Athens could have swam and challenged the USA.
Freddy Bousquet, as good as he was at the NCAA has not medaled in either the 50 or the 100 Free at either 2004 Athens or 2005 Montreal. In fact he didn't even final in the 100 in Montreal and Lezak and Phelps did. He did get a 7th in the 50 with a :22.44 however. So all of the training he is doing over here has not paid off in International competition.
Could someone please tell me who has more potential than the USA? Italy would look like judging from the rankings but they did not even place in the 400 Free Relay.
I still stand by my statement that no nation has more future potential talent over the USA in the 400 Free Relay. If you look at the current FINA World Rankings, the USA has more swimmers than any nation ranked in the top ten. Last year with the 3:13.77, which broke the American Record and was only .60 off the World Record.
South Africa didn't even field a team when they could have. With 3/4 of the relay swimming in Montreal and a replacement for Lyndon Ferns they didn't even try. Read the story at
www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/9443.asp That guy, Karl Thaning that did a :49.25 split in Athens could have swam and challenged the USA.
Freddy Bousquet, as good as he was at the NCAA has not medaled in either the 50 or the 100 Free at either 2004 Athens or 2005 Montreal. In fact he didn't even final in the 100 in Montreal and Lezak and Phelps did. He did get a 7th in the 50 with a :22.44 however. So all of the training he is doing over here has not paid off in International competition.
Could someone please tell me who has more potential than the USA? Italy would look like judging from the rankings but they did not even place in the 400 Free Relay.
