The World University Games are a bit of a misnomer in some senses. That’s because students are eligible for the event without having ever begun to earn a single post-secondary credit hour. Specifically, the roster that USA Swimming is sending to this summer’s event in Kazaan, Russia has two high school seniors: USC-bound Chelsea Chenault, and Texas-bound Jack Conger.
Of course, USA Swimming well-vetted the rules before putting these guys on the roster, but for the education of our readers, here are the specific eligibility rules that apply in this scenario:
5.2 Participation
5.2.1 Only the following may participate as competitors in the Summer Universiade:
a) students who are currently officially registered as proceeding towards a degree or diploma at the university or similar institute, the status of which is recognised by the appropriate national academic authority of their country;
b) former students of the institutions mentioned in a) who have obtained their academic degree or diploma in the year preceding the event.
5.2.2 Notwithstanding Article 5.2.1, in countries with fewer than 2,000,000 inhabitants or having fewer than 5,000 university students, students attending technical or secondary schools may participate in FISU events provided they have been attending their establishments for at least two (2) years.
Countries wishing to take advantage of the concession in the first paragraph of Article 5.2.2 must submit an application to the FISU Executive Committee at least six (6) months before the scheduled start of the event. Such an application must be supported by documents endorsed by the appropriate state or national academic authorities.
Because Conger and Chenault are REGISTERED at their future schools to proceed toward a degree, they are eligible. High school juniors, for example, generally wouldn’t be eligible. Keep in mind that the rules must be left intentionally vague to account for the different educational systems around the world. The Universiade, as the event is known around the world, is a global event, not an American college event.
By that same spirit, this is why swimmers like 28-year old Mike Alexandrov are eligible for the meet. So long as he is still a student progressing toward a degree (or finished in the last year), he is a University student. It’s easy for American fans to get caught up in the fact that most of the world doesn’t have as formalized of a collegiate athletics system as the NCAA is, and so most of the world doesn’t see it as odd that an athlete would be able to be considered a “student-athlete” for four years.
The WUG’s are not designed to be as stringent of a system as the NCAA is. The WUG’s are truly an event designed to celebrate the unity that we can all feel through the melding of scholarship and athletics, and how the two concepts can benefit from each other (something the NCAA seems to fall short of at times.)
Miss Chenault will probably go to Barcelona with the 4X200 free relay.
Some Years in some sports have high standards but it depends on who is available .
The focus is fraternity. For the less serious that means party.
Justanopinion mentions the Military. Now that is where things could be interesting. How about the possibility killing off someone one day legally who was in the next lane?
Ok. Lets admit it – it has crossed many minds when on the blocks!
FISU Games have been around for decades. This is very similar to how all countries run selection for this event.
By American standards it has a very lax selection process we don’t quite come to grips with it because we are so in line with how NCAA rules work regarding eligibility and we are a lot more strict on many levels.
However there are plenty of “students” world wide that have competed in all sports that have been students for years (remember this event took place back when Russia was the Soviet Union and a 30 year old athlete would not be uncommon depending on the sport because they had been training at a university type campus and… Read more »
I really don’t care about the rules regarding non-pro swimmers, as long as they’re dropping the fastest times possible. If they’re not getting paid, then let the fast swimmers swim. Racing itself is what’s important. And, I won’t lie, I really enjoy seeing Jack conger break records.
are pro swimmer allowed? i would have thought alexandrov would be a pro by now, seeing as he’s 28 and has been competing for a while for the US and bulgaria
A few years ago (2009 or 2010) our illustrious National Team Director stood in front of a room of coaches and told us if we had kids eligible or make the WUGS team to “register” the kids for fall classes even if they had no intention of going. They could then drop out when they got back from the meet. Rules are pretty loose.
and he meant register at the local community college.
… that would definitely cover it. I want to see them swim great times too. Am just a worry wart.
Did he refer to high school students not in their senior year?
It is interesting that these 2 High School students are supposed to be “REGISTERED” ‘as proceeding towards a degree or diploma’ with their future universities, when they are (must be) currently registered in their High Schools.
I am not so sure, that if another country were to make a protest about the participation of these 2 High Schoolers, that the USA would succeed with the ‘the rules are to be interpreted loosely’ argument.
This is because at the very least, the very existence of “5.2.2 Notwithstanding Article 5.2.1, in countries with fewer than 2,000,000 inhabitants or having fewer than 5,000 university students, students attending technical or secondary schools may participate in FISU events provided they have been attending their establishments… Read more »
Patsy – there are no rules prohibiting being registered in high school and college at the same time, either in the United States or by FISU.
Further, it is common practice for students to be accepted to and registered at universities while still seniors in high school. I was a registered student at my college by about March of my senior year of high school, and was enrolled for classes by late July of the summer before (keep in mind that the meet isn’t until the swimmers have finished their senior years – the meet date is what’s relevant, not when they qualified.)
I think you’re again getting too hung up in the Western education system. The rule 5.2.2 would… Read more »
Thanks Brandon. Phew! I was getting rather worried, but it seems everything is fine. ‘Better safe than sorry’ is my motto, but I guess I should adopt one that is more like “Chill” :).
No worries. I can see why the rules are so misleading, but I think everyone’s perspective is pretty loose on this, as OldCoach mentioned.
Down here, if you’ve got better than something like a 3.0 grade point average after your sophomore year in high school, you can enroll for a few classes at your local community college for no cost. It’s a pretty popular program because it lets you take care of your university general education requirements early and cheap so you can focus more on your major once you get to university proper. And I can think of a fair number of high school kids around here who ended up being recruited student athletes at the NCAA level who went off to school with their first 16-24 college credit hours already on the books through community college dual enrollment.
I have to disagree. Im willing to bet just about anything that they are in fact registered. I know as a student athlete coming into college a few years ago I was registered at this point. It is not uncommon for college students to be registered in their classes several months in advance and because their eligibility for this event relied on being registered it gave the Texas and USC academic advisors even more incentive to register them far in advance.