A Swimming Canada spokesperson told us that Canadian National Team member Chantal Van Lendeghem is planning on sitting out the next NCAA season to focus on Olympic training. Van Lendeghem is a Canadian record holder, an NCAA All-American, and winner of the NCAA’s Elite 89 award as a sophomore. She just finished her junior season at the University of Georgia.
At this point, it is unclear if Van Landeghem is foregoing her senior year or just taking an Olympic redshirt and then coming back for her senior season in the fall of 2016. Several swimmers this season have already confirmed they will be taking an Olympic redshirt, as well. The most notable of that group includes the 2015 NCAA Champion in the 200 breaststroke, Kierra Smith, from Minnesota. Smith is also a Canadian National Team member.
If you search through the NCAA rule-books, there is no real “Olympic Waiver” rule per se, rather there are several waivers that allow athletes, when training for certain designated international events, to fall behind the progress-towards-degree requirements and other eligibility requirements and still compete with the college team. Usually, athletes who take an “Olympic Waiver” are employing a few of these different rules.
Tim Phillips of Ohio State and Allison Schmitt of Georgia opted to go with simple “redshirts,” where an athlete doesn’t compete for the NCAA team, and maintain the extra year of collegiate eligibility. In both of these situations, the athletes have also chosen to not participate in classes (and fulfill the the progress-towards-degree requirements), and have actually decided to train with other teams. Phillips went to train with David Marsh at SwimMAC and Schmitt went to train with Bob Bowman at North Baltimore.
These Olympic waivers have been great for several foreign student athletes. Indiana’s Eric Ress was able to extend his NCAA eligibility and compete in 4 season overs a period of 6 years because of the waiver. He used one waiver because of an injury and another to take a year to train for the Olympics back in France.
There have been a few complex situations where a waiver has allowed a swimmer to practice and compete with the Texas swimming squad during the spring semester without being enrolled as a full-time student. Texas sprinter Jimmy Feigen was the most recent swimmer to use an Olympic waiver to compete at the NCAA championships without being enrolled as a full time student. The timing of the US Olympic Team trials make it much easier for American athletes to do this, however. Many Olympic Trial meets for foreign countries conflict with the timing of the NCAA Championships, making it hard for swimmers to swim at their best for both meets.
What exactly is the “waiver” that jimmy used? Can you elaborate on that
Swamhulk – Back in 2011 (which was actually pre-SwimSwam, it was from the old Swimmers’ Circle website), I wrote up a big explanation. http://swimswam.com/explaining-jimmy-feigens-olympic-waiver/
Where did Pine, Fullerton and Hurley go to school? (They clearly didn’t make an impact because while I know who all three are, I have no recollection of them swimming in NCAA).
I am only answering because no one else will ,not because I want to hog the thread. The answer is Pine -Don’t know . Fullerton has has injury problems .
Bobby Hurley is someone who , looking back ,should have gone to Florida .But he was too valuable 200-1500 plus back to let go. There had been a major investment in him at the AIS & the idea is that we don’t want to give the benefit to an american college. (knowing they come back aggro or useless ).
Ok I said it .
Canada should not take college classes into account of their trials. This is national level sport – not “mommy” sport. Your kid is studying too hard to swim well – FU. Your kid swims in NCAAs -FU. It is not on Canada to set their trials around your babies schedules. Be a big boy/girl and sacrifice for your dream. If your dreams are anything but that – Canada says FU. Good for them.
Any word on Noemie Thomas’ plans? Assumed most, if not all, Canadians would redshirt in 2016. Surprised that MacLean plans to swim for Georgia next season.
I would think it would benefit Canada to have its actual best team competing at the Olympics. This is why trials should be moved. Canadian university swimmers would benefit as they have to juggle studies and swimming at that time as well..
Canada should not take college classes into account of their trials. This is national level sport – not “mommy” sport. Your kid is studying too hard to swim well – FU. Your kid swims in NCAAs -FU. It is not on Canada to set their trials around your babies schedules. Be a big boy/girl and sacrifice for your dream. If your dreams are anything but that – Canada says FU. Good for them.
Yeah, but… isn’t it Canada’s job to field the best team possible? While I don’t think that they should move their trials to cater to any sector, if they say FU to everyone who decides to swim NCAA and end up with a weaker team, what good is served?
It is Canada’s job to hold a trials. It is Canadians job to make that meet their focus. It is a simple equation. Don’t cater to the wrong people. In doing so you create a culture and standard to foster long term success.
“Conflicting Trials
The NCAA Championships always occur in mid to late March. The Canadian Trials for the highest priority international competition of the year are often scheduled at the same time. With the possible exception of the Olympic Trials, NCAA swimmers will not be excused from the NCAA championships to participate in their respective National trials.”
Smash.
Australian uni runs march-Nov so they have to mix classes & extended absences twice year year in year out.
NCAA is not a problem here because they all return hopeless . At least yours improve somewhat.
Hmm. What is the history with Aussies in NCAA… Targett did OK, I think… Percy did not. I’m struggling to come up with other examples.
Adam Pine comes to mind.
Matt Targett is the one exception. Maybe because he trained under a (former) aussie who happened to be one of the best coaches for his events?
Others such as Ellen Fullerton, Bobby Hurley etc stagnated or even regressed.
And what do you feel is the reason they come back like that? I’m not arguing- just curious as to what about Aussies may not fit with NCAA swimming.
I guess Matt is the one most closely associated with NCAA & maybe it is him or the attitude he picked up . even in 06 -7 he got DQ’d & his reaction was not acceptable . The charge of bullying against Alicia rang true to many.
Rachel Goh became a very good s/c swimmer but nothing in l/c which is what we care about.
There are not many other success stories . Adam Pine is too far back to have an impact on impressions today. Zalewski was apparently successful in NCAA whereas she could not final here.during or after.
Basically there are few NCAA programs that are the equal of the top squads here. They certainly can go… Read more »
It is the timing of Olympic Trials that will make it so difficult for Canadian swimmers competing in the NCAA. The Trials will again be held 2 weeks after women’s NCAA’s and the week right after men’s NCAA’s. Extending their taper and travel and fatigue make it very difficult for NCAA swimmers to be at their best, and this was apparent for many of them this past week.
It would be great if Swimming Canada would recognize this and change the date of Trials to May or June.
Why would Canada do that? Why should they alter what they think is the right time to select their team and give them a chance to prepare for the games to accommodate the scholastic swim season from another country?
This.
Can you imagine if Australia postpones heir trials by a month or two just because some Bobby Hurley or Ellen Fullerton need a little bit more time following NCAA.
Not to mention… those kids would then need to be fully peaked in March, early June and August?
That’s highly unlikely when you consider the following excerpt from the arguments that Swimming Canada uses when it comes to NCAA. Conflicting trials may be just what they want…one more way to discourage swimmers from going stateside. This is from the document entitled “Canada First”:
POINTS FOR CONSIDERATION ON NCAA PROGRAMS AND CANADIAN NATIONAL LEVEL SWIMMERS:
If considering post-secondary opportunities outside of Canada it is important to keep in mind the fact that not all NCAA swimming teams are the same. The level of talent, coaching expertise and program integrity can vary dramatically from one university to the next. However, even the most accomplished of the NCAA programs are restrained by the following impediments to successful preparation for international… Read more »
It worked VERY well for you, David, from what your fans could see! 🙂
Agreed. Did it in 1987-88. Worked for me. 🙂