I was interested in doing a story about athletes from foreign countries and how the handle the transition and the culture barriers. I wanted to do a story of a subject that isn’t widely discussed, but one that I would be able to have an ample amount of sources. UGA has plenty of athletes from foreign countries and I’m hoping I can find some high athletes as well. I’m not yet sure whether I want to focus the story on high school students, college students or both.
One story I found on the topic was about the amateur eligibility of foreign athletes and basically just describing the policy and process.
http://www.athleticscholarships.net/amateurforeign.htm
Another I found was more about what I’m focusing on, titled Foreign Athletes Face Unique Challenges. The author explains the transition process and uses international student athletes at USC (Trojans) as sources.
One of the most interesting one was posted on Runner’s World, titled NCAA’s Fear of Foreign Athletes. The sub head says, Should college teams be reserved for local runners? This is what initially caught my attention. The article goes into Oklahoma State’s cross country team who won the national title in 2012, but has a roster consisting of many foreign athletes. Many debated that it was unfair and advocates have pulled in the favor of only local runners.
Another story I found was published by the Athens banner Herald titled, International athletes seek NCAA for development, better competition. This article acknowledged many coaches and American athletes’ opinions that international athletes have hindered competition especially in sports like track and field. The article also countered these arguments with the foreign athlete’s views and how they feel like they face their stiffest competition.
And final, I found a PDF packet, about the recruitment process of international student athletes titled U.S. College Athletics: International Student Athletes Recruiting Process. It’s a theses and dissertations written by the University of South Carolina Scholar Commons. I didn’t read the entire 72 pages, but I skimmed through and read some passages and it has a lot of great information that I can use for this individual process. It also contains a lot of helpful statistics and NCAA policy.
The questions I would ask about this topic would include:
- When did you start considering coming to the states to continue your athletic career?
- Could you explain how the transition was, how were you feeling?
- In your opinion, how is the culture different here?
- Does your coach train you differently than your coach back home? How so?
- Are there any other (ethnicity) students on that you interact with or confide in on campus?
- Does the language barrier make competing more difficult for you?
- What are some things you miss most about home?
- Do you feel like UGA does a good job making international students feel welcomed and at home?
- Did you take any visits to other schools in the U.S.? What made you choose UGA?
- Do you see yourself staying here after graduation?