How many guys from other countries does it take to win a National Championship?
Good thing they all attended classes on campus the entire year..... :-)
Makes everyone feel proud to see the American Record holder on the 4th place podium.
It's sad but not surprising that so many coaches turn to so much talent outside the US to score more points.
Perhaps I would do the same thing if I were a college coach and thought I couldn't recruit effectively in the US against other teams and wanted to insure job security.
This is all sour grapes, and old sour grapes at that. I've been hearing similar things for decades. It is more difficult, costly and risky to recruit abroad than domestically. For every success story you see at the championship level, there are many more "failures" (the term is relative, hence the quote marks).
USAS has long depended on NCAA swimming to train most of its best athletes (rather than doing it themselves). This is simply one consequence; it shouldn't be a great surprise that a university's interest and that of USAS (or the USOC) do not perfectly mesh. It is not the duty of a university or its swim coach to advance the interests of the US National Team.
As Mr Neg points out, it is easy to rail against the practice and appeal to altruism/patriotism when one doesn't have to risk anything thereby.
No rules are being broken. If someone is worried about using taxpayer money to train foreign athletes (not merely swimmers) at public schools then do something about it. But I have yet to hear a strong case to be made against the practice.
It's sad but not surprising that so many coaches turn to so much talent outside the US to score more points.
Perhaps I would do the same thing if I were a college coach and thought I couldn't recruit effectively in the US against other teams and wanted to insure job security.
This is all sour grapes, and old sour grapes at that. I've been hearing similar things for decades. It is more difficult, costly and risky to recruit abroad than domestically. For every success story you see at the championship level, there are many more "failures" (the term is relative, hence the quote marks).
USAS has long depended on NCAA swimming to train most of its best athletes (rather than doing it themselves). This is simply one consequence; it shouldn't be a great surprise that a university's interest and that of USAS (or the USOC) do not perfectly mesh. It is not the duty of a university or its swim coach to advance the interests of the US National Team.
As Mr Neg points out, it is easy to rail against the practice and appeal to altruism/patriotism when one doesn't have to risk anything thereby.
No rules are being broken. If someone is worried about using taxpayer money to train foreign athletes (not merely swimmers) at public schools then do something about it. But I have yet to hear a strong case to be made against the practice.
