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.
Do care if kids aren't on campus the whole year and not sitting in classes as the rest of the domestic athletes are required ..... and aren't even swimming in some of the dual meets in the Fall and then show up for the last months of the season and go to "The Show" as if they were a "team".
I have no idea how widespread this practice is among foreign swimmers, and of course it is bad behavior.
I am naturally against anything in "college athletics" that overemphasizes the second word and trivializes the first. (Though I suspect our objections have different sources, since you seem to be protecting the "team" aspect of the college team and I would guard the "college" aspect.)
But is this behavior specific to foreign athletes? No way. Plenty of similar stories of US athletes behaving this way, especially in the "big" revenue sports.
And back to swimming: when I was in college, during an Olympic year I remember one (US) swimmer who barely attended classes and did no homework until NCAAs, then promptly dropped all her classes and went home to train until Olympic Trials. Equally bad behavior in my book, though completely legal by NCAA rules.
College coaches in general (not just in swimming) have incentives to downplay the college education of their charges. Even here at U of Richmond -- a selective liberal arts school that is not in the business of big-time athletics -- I hear whispers, true or not, about how athletes are "encouraged" by their coaches or peers to avoid "hard" majors, or classes that are taught at inconvenient times (wrt training). I don't respect coaches who act that way...but it can be understandable if their job security depends almost entirely on their athletic success.
It is up to the institution as a whole to create an environment where such behavior is not tolerated, and that should include rewarding coaches for academic performance. The "requirement" that domestic athletes attend classes...if that's an NCAA rule, it is one that has been instituted after I attended college. The only such rules I have ever heard of have been specific to teams or universities. (For example, a previous football coach at UR would randomly send someone to check that his athletes are in class and are sitting in one of the front rows. I don't think he had any foreigners on his team, but if he did I very much doubt he would have made an exception for them.)
In this respect, swimming is fortunate because it isn't a high-profile, revenue-generating sport (where temptations are greater). Swimmers on the whole also tend to be pretty disciplined about their studies, though there are obviously exceptions.
Do care if kids aren't on campus the whole year and not sitting in classes as the rest of the domestic athletes are required ..... and aren't even swimming in some of the dual meets in the Fall and then show up for the last months of the season and go to "The Show" as if they were a "team".
I have no idea how widespread this practice is among foreign swimmers, and of course it is bad behavior.
I am naturally against anything in "college athletics" that overemphasizes the second word and trivializes the first. (Though I suspect our objections have different sources, since you seem to be protecting the "team" aspect of the college team and I would guard the "college" aspect.)
But is this behavior specific to foreign athletes? No way. Plenty of similar stories of US athletes behaving this way, especially in the "big" revenue sports.
And back to swimming: when I was in college, during an Olympic year I remember one (US) swimmer who barely attended classes and did no homework until NCAAs, then promptly dropped all her classes and went home to train until Olympic Trials. Equally bad behavior in my book, though completely legal by NCAA rules.
College coaches in general (not just in swimming) have incentives to downplay the college education of their charges. Even here at U of Richmond -- a selective liberal arts school that is not in the business of big-time athletics -- I hear whispers, true or not, about how athletes are "encouraged" by their coaches or peers to avoid "hard" majors, or classes that are taught at inconvenient times (wrt training). I don't respect coaches who act that way...but it can be understandable if their job security depends almost entirely on their athletic success.
It is up to the institution as a whole to create an environment where such behavior is not tolerated, and that should include rewarding coaches for academic performance. The "requirement" that domestic athletes attend classes...if that's an NCAA rule, it is one that has been instituted after I attended college. The only such rules I have ever heard of have been specific to teams or universities. (For example, a previous football coach at UR would randomly send someone to check that his athletes are in class and are sitting in one of the front rows. I don't think he had any foreigners on his team, but if he did I very much doubt he would have made an exception for them.)
In this respect, swimming is fortunate because it isn't a high-profile, revenue-generating sport (where temptations are greater). Swimmers on the whole also tend to be pretty disciplined about their studies, though there are obviously exceptions.
