Should USA Swimming recruit?

I did not go to dook. As a matter of fact, dook is pretty much the sworn enemy of my school.

This thread was about the Olympics and countries paying athletes to represent them without becoming citizens. In my opinion it opens up a very new and in my opinion bad change to the Olympics and wht they have been in my lifetime. As long as the Olympics are about country vs. country competition (which I like), as long as nations come into opening ceremonies as a team, as long as a countries national anthem is played on the awards stand then I feel the people representing those countries should be citizens; natual born, dual or converts. We have professional sports teams that do/should buy up top talent and compete.........keep the Olympics what it is and let pro sports go on. For those of you who want this event to change because it incites "nationalism" which can be seen as good and/or bad, I simply disagree. The 1980 US vs. Russia Hockey game, the US vs. China soccer match, the US vs. Brazil vaolleybal match, on and on and on are things that I feel fortunate to have witnessed and moved by what took place and would like to see more of these in my lifetime.

The times have changed, Paul, and for professionals the borders of a country, as related to who they play for, are as arbitrary as the borders of the city they were born in. Was it here that Seinfeld was quoted as saying that in the pro games what we were really rooting for is laundry? I just can't get that excited about laundry, whatever the color. It is not competition between nations I object to (or nationalism, as you refer to it) but the extremes that countries go through to do well at an event that has no relevence to the quality of the nation. We find countries cheating (I am primarily referring to drugs, here) and going bankrupt trying to show that they can host a sporting event. For what? Does the fact that China can (may) win so many swimming events make you think that that country is a better place to live, or deserves more respect than if it had no swimmers? Is Athens better off with its debt, or if it had spent the money more wisely in things that provided long-term benefits for the city, or never taxed the money at all? I agree with Matt, the more money in the sport the more healthy it will be. And that means professionals and everything that goes with them. Perhaps someday all of the olympic sports will be like Soccer, Baseball, Hockey, Tennis, and Basketball -- with the players mostly too young for prime time, or not quite good enough, because the pros can't be bothered (all of these sports), the sports organizing body is threatened (soccer), or the schedule interferes with the pro league (hockey, baseball, and soccer). Bicycling is another example where the pro sport has mostly left the olympics behind. Those are the *healthy* sports, with lots of participation at all levels of competition. Swimming should want to be more like them, not stuck in some backwater of nostalgic memories for amateurism, where a huge amount of work is spent on the unlikely chance of winning an event every four years, followed by selling insurance for the rest of one's life.