If you've been watching the Pan American Games, you've probably heard a lot of familiar names. And it's not because the stars we'll be seeing next summer in Tokyo. In fact, very few of the American athletes in Lima will be on the Olympic team next year. No, it's because of the NCAA.
The NCAA is the main reason why the U.S. Olympic team has traditionally been so strong. But it's not just Americans who take advantage of the opportunity to play a sport while going to school. NCAA rosters in all sports are peppered with athletes from all over the place (and even if they're from somewhere in the U.S., many can claim foreign citizenship if their parent or grandparent is from that country). And that international depth has been on full display this week.
None of this is news to anybody. But what makes it different is that we aren't just seeing the same schools from Power 5 conferences that normally make up international teams. Sure, there are still plenty of them, too, but we're also seeing some smaller Division I and even Division II or III schools represented by nearly all 41 countries participating. Which just goes to show how international the NCAA really is. And it really is a great thing to see.
All of this makes complete sense. Those larger BCS programs offer full scholarships across the board. Those scholarships are naturally going to go to their top recruits (and you ain't getting a swimmer from Brazil to come to Austin, Texas without a full scholarship), and those top recruits are naturally going to be the ones who'll be competitive internationally. So, when the Olympics come around, it's understandable that you're going to see a ton of athletes who went to college in the U.S.
And there's a perfectly good reason why coaches give those scholarships to international athletes (and those international athletes take them). It's really simple, actually. It's because the NCAA is unique. The U.S. (and Canada to a certain extent) is the only place where you can go to school and still play a sport. The fact that they're letting you go to school for free only sweetens the deal.
In Europe, it's not like that. They don't have "college sports" in the way that North Americans take for granted. Colleges are just that. Colleges. Educational institutions. If they want to keep participating in their sport, by and large, they have to continue with the same club they were with at the youth level. That is if they even have the time to continue in sports. The education at a lot of European colleges is so intense that many students have to make a choice.
I know I just spent the last paragraph talking about Europeans, who don't participate in the Pan Am Games, but I did it to illustrate my point. It makes sense from both perspectives to accept a scholarship from a college in the U.S., where the athlete doesn't have to choose between sports and school.
For athletes from the other 40 Pan Am countries, the choice is just as easy. Not only do they get the chance to continue in their sport and do it while going to school for free, they'll get a better educational opportunity, too. That's not a knock on the education system in their home countries (I have no idea how good the colleges in Colombia are). But it's simply a case of supply and demand. There are a lot of colleges in the U.S. And a lot of them offer scholarships. So why not take advantage of the opportunity if it's presented?
Whenever I watch track & field, I'm amazed by how many of the names are familiar from the NCAA. Dwight Stones and Dan O'Brien have been talking about it all week. Most of the Caribbean sprinters, in fact, run for American college programs. Sometimes the fun part is seeing the guy in the Trinidad & Tobago jersey and trying to remember what college he went to. Or, the less fun opposite game, where you go, "Oh, I didn't know he was from Grenada!"
To be fair, just because they're representing these Caribbean or Central American nations, a lot of them still live and train in the U.S. It's not uncommon for an athlete from Philadelphia whose parent or grandparent is Guyanan to represent Guyana internationally (my friend Aliann Pompey, a four-time Olympian from Guyana, has lived in New York as long as I've known her).
But the coolest thing isn't that a majority of the athletes at the Pan Am Games (especially in the marquee sports of swimming and track & field) also compete for U.S. colleges. Rather, it's the number of different colleges that are represented. It goes to show the quality of NCAA competition across the board. Because it's not just the big schools. There are international-caliber athletes at schools big and small all across the country.
For the colleges it's fun, since it gives them someone to root for. For the fans it's fun, since it means there's at least one familiar name. And for the NCAA it's fun, because it shows that, for all its problems, the organization still serves a very valuable purpose. These talented athletes and their physical gifts are on full display. For both their nations and their schools.
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