In the wake of the House v. NCAA settlement, powerhouse men’s swim and dive teams have fewer roster spots to give away than at any time in recent history. These roster cuts, coupled with the decline of the American men’s swimming performance on the world stage, have elevated complaints among some American swim fans about foreign athletes in the NCAA. These critics argue that too many foreign swimmers in the NCAA takes away resources and opportunities from American swimmers.
One of the biggest lightning rods for criticism in this subject has been Bob Bowman. The Director of Swimming and Diving at Texas, Bowman trains European Olympic gold medalists Leon Marchand and Hubert Kos. Beginning this year, he will add Canadian superstar Summer McIntosh to his contingent of elite international athletes. For the 2024 Paris Olympics, Bowman joined France’s Olympic coaching staff while remaining in contact with top domestic athletes like Regan Smith.
Bowman’s decisions, in the eyes of some critics, represent a dual loyalty conflict.
When it comes to NCAA recruiting, though, no top men’s team has a higher proportion of domestic athletes than Bowman’s Longhorns.
Of the 6 on the current Texas men’s roster, 2 are seniors (Kobe Ndebele from South Africa and Sasha Lyubavskiy from Russia) who were recruited under the famous Eddie Reese “buy American” administration. Calvin Fry (UK), Matej Nevescanin (Croatia), and Rafael Fente-Damers (France) will be freshmen next season, and Hungarian Hubert Kos came with Bowman as a transfer from Arizona State.
The table below shows the roster makeup among the top 10 men’s NCAA teams last year based on their listed hometowns. Texas comes in at a table-low 16.67% foreign athletes. By contrast, the University of Florida stands at the highest proportion with 62.5% of its roster coming from abroad. Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui was not yet listed at the time of publication despite committing to Florida.
There are two caveats to this table. First, Stanford and Virginia Tech are italicized because their data are from the 2024-25 rosters, as this season’s roster was not available at the time of publication. Second, U.S.-raised athletes who compete under foreign flags are listed as foreign athletes on this table. This includes Indiana’s Raekwon Noel (Guyana), Arizona State’s Ilya Kharun (Canada), and NC State’s Kaii Winkler (Germany).
Foreign Athletes in Top Men’s NCAA Teams
| 2025 NCAA Champs Ranking | Team | Total Athletes (2025-2026) | Domestic Athletes | Foreign Athletes | % Foreign Athletes |
| 1 | Texas | 30 | 25 | 5 | 16.67% |
| 2 | California | 27 | 21 | 6 | 22.22% |
| 3 | Indiana | 32 | 25 | 7 | 21.88% |
| 4 | Florida | 24 | 9 | 15 | 62.50% |
| 5 | Tennessee | 18 | 12 | 6 | 33.33% |
| 6 | Arizona State | 30 | 21 | 9 | 30.00% |
| 7 | Georgia | 22 | 13 | 9 | 40.91% |
| 8 | Stanford | 27 | 20 | 7 | 25.93% |
| 9 | NC State | 28 | 21 | 7 | 25.00% |
| 10 | Virginia Tech | 34 | 22 | 12 | 35.29% |
| Total | 272 | 189 | 83 | 30.51% |
In 2022, 15% of all Division I men’s swimming athletes hailed from outside the U.S., putting all of the top 10 teams above this average. See SwimSwam’s previous coverage on percentages, trends, and top countries of origin of foreign NCAA swimmers here.
62 comments and growing. Clearly there are strong opinions on the matter and NCAA has to address this by either adding some guidance to these programs and coaches or by explaining their reasoning for not providing limitations.
Albeit imperfect here is my attempt to summarize comments thus far:
1) There are no rules against recruiting international athletes and coaches need to do all they can to stay competitive. Answer: Understood, we all agree on that. The concern is the lack of rules/limits on spots taken. Suggestions: limit to 10 %. Have age exclusions. Have colleges start club teams.
2) Elite International Athletes at US schools will inspire US swimmers at those same schools. Answer: Agreed. But at… Read more »
Nominating Faz Sarmast to serve on the USA Swimming Board of Directors. YES x 5.
NCAA is not USA Swimming but some real leadership is needed on this issue. First, I’m convinced that downvoters and people who claim that having international kids in the NCAA pool is good for American swimmers are all internationals trying to keep their spots.
USA Swimming dominance has declined as the number of international swimmers in the NCAA has increased. This is NOT good for USA Swimming, period. As coaches desperate to win lean more heavily on internationals, opportunities for American club swimmers decrease. As the dream of swimming in college becomes more difficult to reach, enrollment in club programs drops. Fewer club swimmers means fewer coaches and ultimately fewer club programs. Fewer programs means fewer opportunities to attract… Read more »
The argument that US Universities have ANY obligation to the US Olympic movement is crazy.
It’s an issue and even more pronounced in many non-revenue sports – men’s soccer in particular is similar to swimming in team roster size and impacts of title IX. One of the mid major D1 state universities in my home state has a men’s soccer roster of 31. Only 2 are Americans. Not sure the NCAA or universities care to do anything to prioritize US athletes over fielding the best teams possible to ensure coaching staff and universities squeeze out the most dollars they can.
Coaches care more about winning than developing US athletes and the future US Olympic success.
On the other hand to all this, it’s got to be a good thing for US athletes too. There’s no way Casas goes as fast as he did this summer without training with Leon and Hugo, for example. You’ve also got a huge number of foreign coaches training these athletes in college, which no one seems to be complaining about?
That was meant to say Hubi not Hugo!
There are plenty of swimmers training with Bowman without taking a scholarship and roster spot away from others.
I’m all for American athletes getting opportunities to develop in the NCAA. But here’s where I have a hard time getting upset with roster spots being given to international swimmers. Coaches’ livelihoods depend on the results of their team. They’re going to recruit the fastest team they possibly can to give themselves the best chance at a title. That’s the way literally every other NCAA sport operates, including T&F, which has no shortage of international athletes. Yet you don’t hear “USA T&F is struggling because there’s too much international presence in the NCAA.” It’s because they aren’t!
The fact that our age group swimmers, with top tier facilities, coaching, and a robust racing calendar aren’t fast enough to beat… Read more »
I get what you’re saying about age group swimmers. My biggest issue is the age gap. In general, you’re saying 16 year old age groupers aren’t fast enough to beat out 20 year old international recruits. I don’t think that is truly a failure of USA Swimming.
I think you just nailed the issue. Men get faster with age. Without a cap on international swimmers, the table will always tilt towards the 20yo international. Doing this completely ignores a 16-18yo’s potential, it also reduces the demands on the coaches. Head coaches are paid well, I don’t think we should remove “develop talent” from the list of expectations and replace with “add European Olympic champions to meet line up.”
Unless you’re 20-year-old Popovici swimming the 200 free.
It’s not a failure of USA Swimming, but maybe it’s a failure of US swimmers and families to adapt towards a better way of doing things. There’s nothing stopping a US swimmer from taking a year or two to get stronger and faster. It can make financial sense too if you knock out some intro level courses at a community college while training. Then use your NCAA four years to finish undergrad and start grad school.
To be really fair, we aren’f following Run and Ran so we don’t really know how much outrage there has been over spots and opportunities taken by internationals in that sport. Your use of “you don’t hear…” is a personal statement not a summary of the issue. There is also a greater shortage of facilities for swimming – not every university has or is willing to invest in a natatorium but most have a track and field on campus.
What about Ksawery Masiuk (Polish backstroker) for Texas. I thought he supposed to join this fall.
Oh wait a minute. Texas has 6. Ndebele, Lyubavskiy, Kos, Fente-Damers, Fry, and a freshman diver- Matej Nevescanin.
i think i just became less of a Florida fan. very disappointed in my Gators 🙁
The Gators’ head coach, Anthony Nesty, wasn’t even born in the US. At the 1988 Olympics, he beat an American for gold in the 100 fly.
I think I just became more of a Florida fan. Very happy with the Gators 🫡