Land of Opportunity

Few coaches have done more for American swimming on the international level than Jon Urbanchek, the long-time men's coach at the University of Michigan and a three-time assistant Olympic coach. In Sydney last summer alone, Urbanchek's swimmers or ex-swimmers won four individual Olympic medals (two golds, a silver and a bronze) while breaking a world record, two Olympic records, and three American records.

Yet, Urbanchek harbors ambivalent feelings on the touchy subject of foreign swimmers on scholarship at universities in the United States. On the one hand, he worries about fewer opportunities for American swimmers. Like most other college coaches, he's inclined to give scholarships to Americans rather than swimmers from overseas.

On the other hand, however, he dismisses talk of a cap or an outright ban on foreign swimmers. For 18 of the 19 years Urbanchek has been coaching in Ann Arbor, he's had at least one foreign swimmer. He's convinced that he and the swimmers have been the richer for it. 

"We all get better because they definitely improve the training environment," Urbanchek says. "They've been good athletes, highly motivated, and well trained."

Perhaps none so much as Gustavo Borges, the Brazilian who captained the Wolverines to a national championship in 1995. Though Borges won nine individual NCAA titles during his four years at Michigan, Urbanchek remembers him more for what he did outside the pool. After the championship season, his college eligibility complete, Borges began earning money on the world cup circuit. He later returned to Michigan and handed his coach a check for $2,000.

"I didn't want the money, but he insisted that I keep it," Urbanchek says. "He wanted to give something back. I've had a number of swimmers make some money in swimming, but no one else has ever done anything like that."

Here's the rub: In 1992, after Borges' freshman year at Michigan, he swam to a silver medal in the 100-meter freestyle at the Olympics in Barcelona. American Jon Olsen finished fourth. Borges, on scholarship at an American university but swimming for Brazil, kept a U.S. swimmer from an Olympic medal.

RED, WHITE AND BLUE

There are many ways to view the foreign invasion of U.S. collegiate swimming. One is from the red-blooded American perspective, which goes something like this:

The NCAA championships last year might as well have been held on Ellis Island. Take the men's 200-meter butterfly. Among the top 16 finishers were five swimmers from overseas. One was Hungarian Atilla Czene, 25 at the time. Talk about a hired gun. His time on Arizona State's team was no longer than a summer thunderstorm.

And what's the story with Central Connecticut State? Until a few years ago, the only link the school had to big-time sports was proximity to ESPN's headquarters. Now it's an emerging swimming power, finishing 24th at the NCAAs last spring courtesy of a handful of swimmers who hardly knew Connecticut from China until they arrived on campus.

The foreign incursion is no less pervasive in Division II. The rosters of some of the teams could double as a world atlases. Of the 26 individual titles awarded at last year's men's and women's nationals, 10 were won by foreign swimmers.

Forget for a moment that American collegiate swimming is more global than the United Nations. Think about what's happening to the U.S. Olympic effort. It's the Iraq syndrome. We helped them in the '80s and then we had to fight them in the '90s. Shouldn't college scholarships go to Americans who have a chance, at least, of winning an Olympic medals for the United States?

Paranoia? Over the top? Hardly. The foreign onslaught has pierced all levels. Where do you think last year's male and female high school swimmers of the year were from? Peoria? Try Malaysia and Jamaica.

RECRUITING NIRVANA

Okay, enough of the xenophobia. You get the idea. American coaching and swimming facilities are the best in the world. The educational system that affords the opportunity to train and study simultaneously is unique to the United States.

"Back home you can't combine college and swimming," says Sweden's Lisa Wanberg, a sprint freestyler at SMU. "Athletics and school are totally separate. Most people who decide to swim after high school wait until they are done competing before starting college."

Through the eyes of foreign swimmers, America is truly the land of opportunity. For every one on a swimming scholarship in the United States, three are salivating over the possibility. It's a recruiting nirvana, which brings up another perspective, that of the college coach, particularly one who doesn't get the pick of the high school litter each year.

Mark McFarland has been the women's swim coach at New Mexico State for the last 14 years. For 11 of them he never considered offering a scholarship to a swimmer from outside the United States despite receiving some 30 inquires a year from international swimmers shopping for schools.

"I thought there were enough good American swimmers," he says. "I thought we should keep the scholarship money for them."

But McFarland came to realize that while there might be plenty of good American swimmers, not enough were interested in going to school in Las Cruces. Then one day three years ago a letter arrived from Vanessa Schaufler of Germany. A quick conversion of her metric times revealed a 1:59 in the 200-yard butterfly and a 1:49 in the 200-yard freestyle. McFarland thought the letter had been addressed incorrectly. Stanford, yes, but New Mexico State?

McFarland broke his 11-year-old rule and contacted Schaufler. She had indeed sent letters to other schools in America, but the response to that point had been tepid. McFarland was incredulous. He would have never had a chance recruiting an American high school swimmer with times as fast as Schaufler's. Could it be this easy?

In fact, it was. Without so much as a campus visit, Schaufler committed to New Mexico State. Over the last three years, five other international swimmers have followed her to Las Cruces. McFarland sees little downside. The foreign swimmers, he's found, are more mature than most American high school graduates and better prepared academically. And since they rarely demand a campus visit, they are cheaper to recruit.

"They appreciate the opportunity to come to school in America," McFarland says. "For them, cutting corners is not an option. They are low maintenance."

The only negative McFarland sees is that an 18- or 19-year-old understandably hesitates to commit four years to a school 9,000 miles away from home. So far, however, that problem hasn't surfaced. None of his six international swimmers has yet to leave New Mexico State early.

"My responsibility is to get the best athletes I can for the scholarship dollars I'm given," says McFarland, who is fully funded with 14 scholarships. "If that comes in an American package, great. If not, I've got the responsibility to the team and the school to go wherever I have to to get the best swimmers I can."

It's a tough argument to refute.

"I hear all of the time about only recruiting Americans," says Brad Flood, the men's and women's head coach at Central Connecticut State. Flood established a recruiting pipeline to Poland while an assistant at Iowa 10 years ago. "But what would those coaches do if they were at Central Connecticut? I want to get to the NCAAs, but I'm not going to get 1:45 (200-yard) fliers from the United States to come here."

FROM TRICKLE TO FLOOD  

The American Olympic view of the foreign invasion sees both pluses and minuses. It's a matter of degree. Back in the 1960s, when Australian world record holders Murray Rose and Kevin Berry swam for Southern Cal and Indiana, respectively, U.S. swimming benefited from the heightened competition. Each year the NCAA championships gave off a whiff of an Olympic aura.

But moderation was abandoned in the 1970s. Don Gambril, in particular, had tremendous success, first at Long Beach State and then at Alabama, with swimmers from overseas. A new model fell into place. Coaches came to realize that international swimmers could do more than complement a program, they could make a program, and a very good one at that. The floodgates opened wide and they have stayed that way ever since.

"It's gotten to the point," says Dennis Pursley, USA Swimming's National Team Director, "where there are so many international swimmers, that instead of challenging our swimmers, they block them out."

Pursley warns of being blinded by America's stellar performance in Sydney last summer. The U.S. swimmers happened to have a good meet while the Australians were flat. A longer view reveals that America is slipping from its dominate position. The Pan Pacifics last year, the World Championships the year before that, the top-10 world rankings over the last several years, they all indicate a national program on a treadmill or, perhaps, falling a step or two behind the pace.

"I'm not saying that international swimmers in college are the only cause of this," Pursley says. "But when you have an inordinate number of college scholarships going to foreign swimmers, that's a problem, and it's going to affect how we do internationally."

TENNIS, ANYONE?

Rich Gugat coaches tennis at the Air Force Academy. For obvious reasons, he has no players on his team from overseas, but he's surrounded by teams that do.

"We'll face some schools that have foreign players from top to bottom," he says. "The other day, one of my players asked, 'Hey, Coach, when do I get to play an American?' At some places, if they are a little weak in the fall season, they will go Christmas shopping overseas and have a whole new team in the spring."

According to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association in Princeton, N.J., roughly a third of the players in Division I are from overseas. A top-100 ranking will typically list 50 to 60 foreign players. Within college tennis circles, talk of an invasion ended years ago. Why bother? The sport has already been conquered.

And yet, there's no move afoot to limit or ban foreign players from taking advantage of tennis scholarships. That doesn't speak well for Pursley's hope that the NCAA will impose some sort of cap-say, no more than two scholarships per team for swimmers from overseas.

"I would not be in favor of that," says Steve Collins, the women's coach at SMU.

"I think that would be almost un-American," says Gregg Troy, the men's coach at Florida. "You are telling me that I can't offer a scholarship to someone who is qualified and can help my team? Besides, how are you going to enforce it? Take a Puerto Rican swimmer. Would he be a foreign swimmer or an American?"

More likely is some sort of limit on the age of foreign swimmers. In 1997, the NCAA put a rule into effect for Division I tennis schools which says, in essence, that a player has five years from high school graduation, or its international equivalent, to finish four years of college eligibility.

"It hasn't curbed the number of international players," says ITA spokesperson Casey Angle, "but it has really cut down on the 24- and 25-year-old hired guns who come in from overseas for one year and play against 18-year-olds."

Urbanchek believes there also should be a clearinghouse to look into eligibility, particularly as it relates to amateur status.

"Almost every foreign athlete at the elite level has some sort of income," Urbanchek says. "It's a big problem and it's really unfair to American swimmers."

But neither Urbanchek nor any other college coach interviewed for this article believes that limiting the age of foreign swimmers and verifying their amateur status will lower the number who find their way to universities in the United States.

"I don't feel good about it; I don't feel bad about it," says Brad Flood of his heavy reliance on foreign swimmers to build an upper-tier program at Central Connecticut State. "It's just a fact. It's part of the job."