Buying Athletes/Swimmers?

We already allow this bribery to take place in the NCAA. If we take away the scholarship money from the foreigners (give it to US citizens) and make them pay their own way, they will probably go train at home. John Smith

I have argued in previous posts that world (vs international) competitions should be between individuals and not between nations. The last thing we need is sport competition heating up international rivalries and inducing nations to organized cheating. I could care less about medal counts, but I do like to watch the best runners and swimmers compete. These athletes are professionals, and they should be allowed (and encouraged, in the spirit of a free labor market and open shops) to work for whoever pays the best or provides the best future for their career.

Originally posted by aquageek Rumor has it that gull80 was offered a similar amount of money to swim for New Bern Aquatics. Yes, and I will get a nice bonus after I take you to school in the 500.

Maybe we should abolish all college spoting teams as well? Compete as individuals in all of the sports......everyone can actually just take classes over the internet.....we've all seen the damage caused by all that competition! But if we go that far......probably need to disband high school athletics as well.....don't want to create any grudges there either, oh wait we've already stopped awarding places and grades in many of our schools so people won't feel "left out" and suffer hurt feelings. Come to think of it....maybe we should eliminate corporations, hate to see competition there heating up! Come on.....its the Olympics......having pride in your nationality is a good thing, but now you can switch countries and not ven have to become a citizen! Once again we see this incredibl esporting event going further and further down the path of professionals (no I;m not blind, its been that way for years).......

Originally posted by Paul Smith Maybe we should abolish all college spoting teams as well? Aren’t there 2 t’s in spotting?

Originally posted by Frank Thompson Is it swim exploring or swim whoring? It depends on your point of view. Roland Schoeman rejected an offer to swim with the nation of Qater and he gave his reasons in a press release yesterday. He said it was not a simple and straightforward decision even if he is poorer as a result. He believed he would be taking a short term gain as a result if he accepted. Duje Draganja accepted an offer to swim for the nation of Qater and he gave his reasons in a press release www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10277531/From/RL.1 He stated that the country will be his sponsors and provide better funding than his current country of Croatia. As a professional swimmer athlete, he needs to take advantage of opportunities that will support him financially and not depend on sponsors if your going to get to the top of your profession. Qater has done this in the past with Keyan World Champion runners like Shaheen so there is a history of success there. Now they plan on getting into swimming and they have Australian coach Otto Sonnleitner to build a team and provide the best facilities that money can buy. Rumor has it that they plan on recruiting Domino Fioavanti, 2000 double Olympic Champion in the 100 and 200 *** for Italy with a 1 million dollar offer. I can see how some athletes could do this and I wouldn't be suprised if the next swimmer they make an offer to would be Kristi Coventry because of the problems in Zimbabwe and how that country cannot compete in the upcoming Commonwealth swimming championships because of Robert Mugabe thugacracy. I guess it comes down to national pride and patriotism or getting the best possible compensation for your professional occupation. I think the FINA rule is you have to swim unattached for a year before switching your delegation so you are going to see a lot of this in the next year or so. Roland Shoemann didn't think twice about taking away a scholarship from a US athelete when he came to the US for swimmigin! This entire argument is meaningless.

Does anyone wish to discuss dual citizenship? Polish-American Ron Karnaugh? No financial incentive, but a wonderful opportunity to swim at the Olympics for Poland...

Paul, I'm not sure I understand your concern. We've chatted a bit on this site about making swimming more of a big time sport. One of the components of that, as many of us have agreed, is for world class athletes to have better opportunities to earn a living while pursuing swimming excellence full time. Well then, here we go. Like it or not the international meets where teams are fielded by nations is the big time in swimming. The World Cup series has made some strides focusing more on individual swimmers instead of national teams. But only the big meets, the Olympics especially, where the casual fan identifies with his nation's athletes really get the attention. In that context why shouldn't a nation with high aspirations, just like a soccer club or a baseball franchise or dare I say it a University willing to spend money in ways the NCAA will permit, be able to sign free agents? Certainly this will open up new forms of compensation for professional swimmers and create new opportunities. Also, to the extent it creates interest in elite level swimming in a nation like Qatar, it creates a demand and a market for elite swimming that did not exist anymore. Didn't we already say we were interested in that? Yes, I see your point about this development loosing the common nationality between the swimmer and the fans from his "home." That is valid, but it is a point we've faced and gotten over in any other professional sport. Free agents jump from team to team. Teams move to new cities. As Jerry Seinfeld observed, we're really cheering for laundry, but for leagues like the NFL, it seems we're OK with that. At the college level, you do lose something when you shift from Div III where you can sit next to a star athlete in your English Comp class, to Div I where that rarely happens. Last time I checked, Div I fans are just as passionate about the strangers that play for dear old University. Also, there is a dark side to getting picky about nationality. What are the criteria for who is genuinely Qatari? Do you have to be born there? By that measure, Lenny Krazylburg flunks out as a real American. Do you have to be ethnically Arab and/or religiously Muslim? Do NOT get me started about the demons that would unleash! Moreover, such a test would be nonsense in nations that pride themselves on their immigrants, like the U.S. or Canada. How about having to become a naturalized citizen first before you can compete? That is something, but it would not stop a nation from adopting a perfunctory naturalization process for the star athletes it wants to import. Personally, I think there is more up side than down side to this developement and I'm in favor of it. Just my self-appointed loudmouth's opinion. Take it for what it is worth. Matt

Only at the most elite levels of college swimming are the swimmers effectively professionals (though not according to the NCAA.) Those swimmers are on the teams that recruit from across the country to get the best swimmers to attend state universities, and from across the world to get the best swimmers to attend state and private universities, and get the swimmers that are best served, financially and professionally, by swimming at that school. Let the professionals go where they want, and lets stop trying to put them in artificial 'teams.' Letting professionals go where they want is not relevent to the issue of whether there should be high school or college swimming teams. Even at the amateur level there is nothing wrong with a swimmer deciding to swim with team A in city A, even though the swimmer lives in city B that has a team B. Why should it be different for the established swimmers? Or should they feel special affection for the *nation* of their birth, even though it may persecute their ethnic group, not approve of women wearing speedos, or have no swimming program of merit?

I think there should be a meet where the 8 fastest people in each event get on the blocks and race. Not sure if the Olympics or World Championships need to be altered, yet from a fan standpoint it would be refreshing. I think what Duje has done may change the fabric of the sport. In a way he became a free agent, like what Curt Flood did to Major League Baseball in the 60s. Since swimming doesn't have professional league and swimming for your country is the only method of financial reward, this may be the first of many switching allegiances or dual citizenships to come.