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.
SLOmmafan,
"I think American swimming (particularly Men's) is in pretty good shape"... "the American men had by far the most depth."
Perhaps a closer look at the 2008 Olympics is necessary. Take away ONE man from the US Team, and they only win 2 events.
That.......... is not the definition of "depth".
I have to disagree! While there is no doubt that Michael Phelps was the single most significant factor on the US team, there is still incredible depth. The US men won every relay (with Phelps), but could have won at least two of them without him in my opinion (other than the 4 x 100 free).
Look at the medal counts - US had 11 more medals then the second place team (Australia). Even taking away evey Phelps victory we still win the medal count (how is that not depth???).
Not to mention, other countries are in similar positions. Take away Alain Bernard and France loses it's only male gold.
Quite a difference in points scored by the two men wouldn't you agree?
Oh, I see. The problem isn't 21 year old sophs, it's 21 year old sophs who score lots of points. Specifically who score points for rival teams :)
Nathan Adrian is another 21 year old sophomore who scored lots of points.
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.
Hey, we have american swimmers that bounce from team to team to set records. Never mind the ruling that states they can't do this. Check Illinois to see how this works.
It is fairly obvious that there can be no "strong case" against the current situation as you are a supporter of the status quo.
As for your supposition that it is not the duty of a university or its swim coach to advance the interests of the US National Team. Try reconciling that logic with the coaches who have both duties with the same group of swimmers.
The overlap is evident.
The existence, or not, of a strong argument should be independent of my own position. If you can't make a strong case, just say so, don't blame me for it.
As for my "supposition"...although I am not privy to the contracts of college coaches, I would be willing to bet there is no mention of the US National team.
If such coaches ALSO have duties to the national team, and those duties conflict with and lessen their effectiveness as college coaches...why, those are grounds to be fired.
Like it or don't, the fact is that our universities are open to non-Americans, including athletes. No rules are broken by recruiting those athletes, it isn't morally objectionable, and it isn't the "cheap fix" that you seem to think it is.
Competition makes us better ... no matter whether that competition comes from the guy next door, the next state or another country. Suck it up, get in the pool and train.
Auburn swam VERY well the 3rd day of the NCAAs.
However, there still remains vastly different opinions on recruiting approaches between the top schools and some of the nations leading coaches.
There are recruiting approaches for the more patriotic coaches that might also work such as recruiting more depth in non-freestyle events.
Tim
Especially when you consider swimmers like Cavic who chicken out of swimming in the US Trials and sign up with Serbia...where he has never lived.
And think of the depth we'd have if all those US trained swimmers actually swam for us??
I dont see what the problem is with Cavic swimming for his parents country. He has always represented Serbia in international meets, wasn't a huge shocker to see him swim for them in the Olympics. Its not like he didn't make the US Team and then decided to go to Serbia.
