This article originally appeared in the 2023 College Preview issue of SwimSwam Magazine. Subscribe here.
If you pay attention to the 2023 D1 Women’s and Men’s NCAA results, you’ll notice a big difference.
We’re not talking in terms of the number of NCAA records — most of them were set at the women’s competition — nor in terms of the winning teams on the women’s side. Virginia was dominant and won easily, having won all five relays, and Cal’s men’s team won in a closer battle, in which the team did not win any of the relays.
We’re not talking about any of that, but about the presence of non-U.S. swimmers.
In the men’s NCAA, it is emblematic that the best swimmer was France’s Leon Marchand from Arizona State, who won three events with three NCAA records: the 200 breaststroke, 200 IM and 400 IM. In addition to Marchand, three other foreign swimmers won their events — Tennessee’s Jordan Crooks from the Cayman Islands in the 50 freestyle, Florida’s Josh Liendo from Canada in the 100 freestyle, and Virginia Tech’s Youssef Ramadan from Egypt in the 100 butterfly. Additionally, in the 13 individual events, non-U.S. swimmers took 18 of the 39 possible top three places, including the top three positions in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly.
On the women’s side, the scenario was different. Only two foreign swimmers, both from Canada, won individual events – LSU’s Maggie MacNeil in the 50 freestyle, and Stanford’s Taylor Ruck in the 200 freestyle. And non-U.S. swimmers took 10 of the 39 top three spots — significantly lower numbers than the men’s competition.
Has this been the rule over the years? And has foreign participation among NCAA winners gone up or down?
Growing winning percentages since the 1970s
Considering data since 1970 for men and 1982 for women (when the women’s NCAA Championships was introduced), there is a clear difference. Among men, 185 of 690 individual events (26.8%) were won by non-U.S. swimmers. Among women, there were 81 wins in 543 events (14.9%).
That is, having more non-U.S. men winning events at NCAAs than women was not exclusive to 2023. It is a pattern that has been observed over the years.
The following charts display the percentage of individual events won by non-U.S. swimmers over the years in each edition of the NCAAs. It is quite clear that the percentages among men, in general, are higher than those of women. And there are other interesting numbers on these graphs.
Men’s D1 NCAA – Percentage of individual events won by non-U.S. swimmers since 1970
Women’s D1 NCAA – Percentage of individual events won by non-U.S. swimmers since 1980
In the men’s graph, it is possible to notice a growth in foreign participation in NCAA wins from the 1970s to the 1990s. Which was expected, after all, since it was during this period that swimmers from all over the world began to be increasingly attracted to universities in the United States. From the 1990s onwards, the scenario stabilized, with many non-U.S. athletes becoming part of the university routine.
In some years, non-U.S. swimmers won more events than U.S. swimmers. This occurred in 1991, 1992, 1999, 2007, 2008, and 2014. Among women, this has only occurred once: in 2011, the year USC’s Katinka Hosszu from Hungary and Auburn’s Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace from the Bahamas won multiple events.
The greatest non-U.S. swimmers in NCAA history
And who are the greatest non-U.S. swimmers in NCAA history? In terms of number of wins, nobody beats Slovakia’s Martina Moravcova, who swam for SMU between 1996 and 1999. In three of those four years, she won the 100 and 200 freestyle and 200 IM. She added another win in the 200 freestyle to bring her total to 10.
On the men’s side, the greatest winners are tied: Iowa’s Artur Wojdat from Poland, from 1989 to 1992, and Arizona’s Ryk Neethling from South Africa, from 1997 to 2000. Interestingly, they had wins in the same events: 200, 500 and 1650 freestyle — in Neethling’s case, he also won the 200 and 400 freestyle when the NCAA was in short course meters in 2000.
Swimmers with the most individual titles at D1 NCAAs
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Besides Moravcova in the 200 freestyle and Wojdat in the 500 freestyle, the only other non-U.S. swimmer to have won the same event for four years is Brazil’s Gustavo Borges, who swam for Michigan, winner of the 100 freestyle from 1992 to 1995 — he is, to date, the only swimmer, U.S. or non-U.S., to have won the men’s 100 freestyle on four occasions.
Moravcova, Neethling, Wojdat and Borges are also part of the select group of non-U.S. swimmers who won three events in the same D1 NCAA Championships edition. In addition, California’s Graham Smith from Canada also achieved this feat in 1979, Auburn’s Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe in 2005, USC’s Katinka Hosszu from Hungary in 2011 and, of course, Arizona State’s Leon Marchand from France in 2023.
In terms of countries, Canada is the foreign country with the most women’s D1 NCAA wins with 16, followed by Slovakia with 10 — courtesy of Martina Moravcova.
In the men’s competition, considering data since 1970, Brazil is the country with the most victories, 23, followed by South Africa with 22, and Poland with 18. It is important to emphasize that, if the survey were extended from the first edition of the Men’s NCAAs in 1924, certain countries would have accounted for more victories; since, until the 1970s, non-U.S. swimmers were mostly from English-speaking countries such as Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and New Zealand.
How many American swimmers go elsewhere? Athletic conglomeration is annoying. NBA is a world sport, but they all happen to play here. Same with Soccer world sport, but all the athletes compete in European teams. People want to see the best possible matchups, I guess. The international competitions like Olympics or FIFA world cup don’t make that much sense though, they all go home and compete for their National Teams, which is kind of annoying arguably the best player is from Norway and didn’t even get to go to FIFA.
The NBA is cool though, they know about their position in the world and send many athletes to play overseas and they promote viewership in other countries, so it goes… Read more »
Lots of European soccer teams play matches in America these days. I watched Minnesota United play Aston Villa in Minneapolis a few years back.
Why isn’t anyone investigating this issue? Would the tax payers in the states where there are the most issues really support paying for foreign athletes education? I firmly believe that public universities should prioritize local and national athletes over foreign ones when awarding scholarships. It seems like many programs are taking a shortcut to success by recruiting fully developed foreign athletes instead of nurturing talent from within the state or US. This reflects poorly on the coaches, who should be focused on developing homegrown talent, instead they are merely talent agents. Additionally, in sports like Track and Field so I assume the same for Swimming, these foreign athletes often fall outside the typical age range for U.S. competitors. For example,… Read more »
There are around 60 more D1 women’s programs than men’s programs so there are significantly more team slots for women than men. Most college coaches will say it is harder to recruit women than men because there are so many choices for the women. Plus a lot of Men’s programs have roster limits so the women’s rosters are usually larger so the men have relatively fewer opportunities. So, the internationals on the men’s side are taking up a larger percentage of the already limited roster spots. Then there is Division II, which at the top levels are 40% international athletes. On some of those teams, if you are from the US, your chances of making their NCAA team are very… Read more »
I have no problem with international students competing at US universities. Coaches will look for the talent that best fits their program for “whatever reason” no differently than admissions officers look at the pool of “regular” students to fit the university’s agenda for that year with the added bonus of the international student tuition they will receive. My issue is when scholarships are awarded to these international athletes at public universities. As a parent of a student – athlete, we have been told first hand by several coaches that international students “demand full or nearly full” scholarships to compare to the free university education they would receive in their home country. When a coach only has so many scholarships or… Read more »
Most of the foreign athletes end up competing against US swimmers in international championships. Why aren’t they being sponsored by their countries to train in the States.
I have no issues with foreign athletes utilizing our great facilities and coaches but why must it be free? I listened to an Eddie Reese interview a long time ago, according to him, the same money and effort used to recruit a foreign swimmer can be used towards an American who will end up competing for his country.
SMU with 20 titles from foreigners! Just wow.
For the people upset about foreigners coming into the states and pursing an education through athletics, understand that most of these kids come from places that don’t have opportunities. If you’re mad that your kid isn’t getting that full ride like the foreigners usually do, they should’ve been faster. There’s more at stake for the foreigners than there is for the Americans.
It’s not like these swimmers are coming from some impoverished village with no running water somewhere in some third-world country. Mostly they’re coming from western countries with plenty of luxury and opportunity, and in many cases that opportunity comes with a free university system.
The opportunity they’re lacking in most countries outside the US is the opportunity to compete at a high level for their university while completing their studies. It’s fine with me if they want to come here and participate in that, but it’s not like their choice is this or a hardscrabble life in the salt mines. If they want the opportunity, is it too much to ask them to take a place in line behind… Read more »
So then you’re proposing that international athletes should be allowed to have scholarships at athletics departments that are self-sufficient but not at ones that pull money from the university?
It’s our taxes, and that’s not right!
So why do you think they do it? The foreign swimmers don’t force their way in!
As I understand it, the foreign swimmers are usually approached informally by the US programmes, who are enlightened enough to see the benefits that foreign talent can bring to their programme- in terms of winning titles and in terms of new training partnerships, new coaching partnerships, new team dynamics etc etc
And looking at the bigger picture… mutual benefits for “swimming” (worldwide) not just USA swimming.
Coaches are under enormous pressure to win. That is all. There is no enlightenment.
The last thing we need, and anyone should want, is for the NCAA to play an enhanced role in managing university eligibility/scholarship decisions. Name a sport where they have recently made positive contributions to the level of play or governance. Non-USA swimmers enhance competition and interest in college swimming and are one useful connection that exposes students and swimmers to nations and peoples beyond the USA.
I’m not sure the article seeks to denigrate the role of overseas swimmers in any way, but yes overseas swimmers help to broaden horizons as much as anything else which I think is critical personally.