So tired of athletes competing for U.S. Colleges and not representing the U.S. at Championships

What "championships"?

You would want a Kenyan winning the US Champs 10,000m? Seems odd.

Also, you would want them taking the spot of an American at the World champs?

Again seems odd.

stupid take

But there is no such principle. The other side of that coin is the brain drain for those other countries that have trained some of their brightest minds through college who end up coming here for grad school and staying here for ever. Freedom of people to pursue happiness dominates both concerns.

I'm tired of people caring. College sports are not intended to be a training ground for the US teams. If the USOC wanted American colleges to develop American athletes to the exclusion of others, it should step up and fund the athletic departments with strings tied to the money. If you want it to happen, you can step up and fund one or more scholarships.

And note that coaches are rewarded for winning while the athlete is in school, not for developing someone who will win when they are out of school.

Sounds like you would support a fascist regime mandating their participation…

Why are some claiming that foreign students pay more than US students? The school receives the same tuition which means there is no benefit to them to have foreign students.

There is also the added diplomatic advantage of educating the future decision makers of other countries. They come here, are exposed to our worldview, democratic values, and culture. When they leave and go back to China, Russia, etc. they are far more likely to have a positive attitude towards the US.

John McDonnell said to me 'what a country the USA is, you can come here and accomplish most anything - it gave me an opportunity.' John later achieved a dual Irish/US citizenship. I ran for John as a walk-on US kid. The foreign guys on my team (who are still good friends 40 years later) and the foreign guys I competed against, made me a MUCH better competitor. Here a lowly 4:20 miler walk-on walked away with 4 All American certificates during my college experience at Arkansas. Say what you will, but foreign athletes make US athletes better.

He didn't have dual citizenship

Threads like this is why LetsRun is dying

This is a significant benefit that's normally overlooked.

Take two...

This is a significant benefit that's normally overlooked.

Have a sleep then

I’d be more concerned about the US Army mercenaries. We already have good distance runners. The Army should be recruiting discus throwers, long jumpers, but particularly race walkers.

Are you from America or a communist country? We have free enterprise here. The Universities are a business. They have customers from all over the world like Amazon or Apple or Nike or any American business. For colleges their customers are students. The number of foreign students in American Universities is at an all time high. One reason for that is because Americans were enterprising enough to have more Universities per capita than any other country.

Like any business, Universities have to abide by. Laws. There can't be any discrimination. Universities have various programs that are part of the student experience. It's not just Athletics, there is study abroad, debating, student government and a ton of other things. The University, not the Government, spends money on all these programs, so they can't discriminate. Saying a foreign student can't do track or baseball is like saying he or she can't use the library ot the computer room or the student center. If the university gives scholarships, then all students are entitled to apply without race gender or national origin discrimination.

The typical foreign student brings hard currency. The University doesn't have to do FAF forms and help the typical foreign student get aid. Our enterprising Universoties love these customers. If we look at the percent of foreign students getting athletic scholarships, it is paltry compared to the percent of American students getting athletic scholarships. Track and soccer are probably the two sports where we see foreign students getting some scholarships. But the few who do, have to meet a far higher standard than the American student getting a track scholarship. It could be argued that there is discrimination against foreign students, if they are so numerically under represented in sports.

Because the standard is so high, the few foreign athletes who come are really good. They end up being very visible. In fact this system, has helped American athletes as much as it has helped foreign athletes. It has helped to bolster one of the best development systems in the sport of track and field in the entire world for all participating.

A word of warning. Be careful of what you wish. In actuality, a lot of top talent from around the world has stopped coming. They are staying home as in Botswana or Jamaica or Kenya or Eithiopia or UK. And that is not benefitting the American athlete.

The team that wins the NCAA Men's volleyball championships is the team with the best international students. The top teams all have 3 or 4 international players on their teams.

The coaches say (and it may be true) that having international players on the teams allow other players to get to know about other cultures and adds diversity to the team and improves the play of American players. Some American players may not get as much experience on the court but do get a different experience than if the team was all American born talent.

The top players are all international players. The US National team would love to have some of them on their national teams. USA Volleyball is pleased that one going to be eligible to compete for the US by the next Olympics.

If it hadn't been for those pesky Japanese in 1941, we'd never had had to bother ourselves with Europe.

Colleges are absolutely allowed to discriminae. The Supreme Court affirmed this. Colleges have lower standards for minorities. Colleges have lower standards for applicants from states that are underrepresented. Colleges have lower standards for countries that are underrepresented. Colleges have thousands of scholarships based on sex and race thereby charging lower rates for those groups.

I don't mind foreign athletes coming to the United States and then going back home to represent their home countries. I get more annoyed at U.S. athletes, going to U.S. universities, getting all the benefits and resources available at U.S. colleges, from coaching to weight training to high level of competition and then deciding to represent another country even though they've barely even visited, much less grew up there, because they know they can't make the U.S. team.

Mondo is a special case, because he visited every year, and that was the plan to represent Sweden from the very beginning, and he is quite open about it.

It's people like Nick Ponzo, Jasmine Camacho Quinn, and even 400M hurdler Gianna Woodruff. All born and raise in the U.S., went through the U.S. education system, and now compete for other countries. It's their right, to be sure, but don't pretend like you're actually Italian or from Puerto Rico or Panama. It drove me crazy when the announcers were going gaga over Ponzio as the crazy Italian. I'm like, you do know he's from New Jersey, right? And it's well known that JCQ only represents Puerto Rico because she bombed out in the U.S Trials in 2016. Again, which is her right, but let's not pretend it's anything but a cop out that you aren't good enough to make the American team.

Just now, I saw a story about how the rise of the Dominican Republic team is due to Felix Sanchez, without even bothering to mention that he was born, raised, and lived in the Bronx his whole life. Just be honest.

Say, Nick Ponzio, an American representing Italy. I mean, they did that with the "Chinese" snowboarding in the winter Olympics last year. At least broadcasters were up front about the obvious reasons why she renounced American citizenship. ($$$$$)

I give credit to athletes like Rai Benjamin, Wadeline Jonathas, and Barbara Pierre who switch their allegiance back to the U.S. because they know they are getting the advantages of living and training here, and want to actually represent their country.

The Kenyans in the US Army program, well, that's a whole 'nother thread.