U.S. President Donald Trump has launched his latest escalation against Harvard University, stripping the school of its ability to enroll foreign students by decertifying its eligibility for the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. This would force thousands of students to transfer out of one of the world’s most prestigious universities, including a number of student athletes.
The move is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to pull Harvard in line with administration policies after previously freezing over $2 billion in research grants. Harvard, which at more than $53 billion has the largest university endowment in the world, has resisted the pressure from the government and sued for those grants to be restored. Several other universities have been willing to shift policy in response to similar threats from the administration.
More specific to swimming, the move would potentially impact three returning members of Harvard’s men’s swimming & diving team and four returning members of Harvard’s women’s swimming & diving team.
Underclassmen with international hometowns on Harvard’s 2024-2025 Swimming & Diving rosters
| Swimmer | Squad | Class (24-25) |
Listed Hometown
|
| Kristin Helga Hakonardottir | Women’s Swimming | Sophomore |
Kopavogur, Iceland
|
| Blythe Wieclawek | Women’s Swimming | Sophomore |
Oro-Medonte, Canada
|
| Nina Janmyr | Women’s Diving | Junior | Hjarup, Sweden |
| Giulia Viacava | Women’s Swimming | Freshman | Monaco |
| Felipe Baffico | Men’s Swimming | Sophomore | Santiago, Chile |
| Mert Iravul | Men’s Swimming | Freshman | Ankara, Turkey |
| Filip Lanyi | Men’s Swimming | Sophomore |
Piestany, Slovakia
|
Janmyr scored 26 points individually, Viacava scored 19 points individually, and Hakonardottir scored 1 point individually at the 2025 Ivy League Championships.
The men’s team also has at least four international swimmers slated to join them next season: Ognjen Pilipovic of Serbia, Maro Miknic and Vito Rados of Croatia, and Mark Iltsisin of Estonia. Miknc was the silver medalist in the 100 fly at the 2024 European Junior Swimming Championships.
Other sports would be hit much harder, as outlined here by the Associated Press. Ten out of 13 members of the men’s squash team and more than half of the women’s soccer team, for example, list international home towns, as do seven of the eight members of the men’s heavyweight rowing team.
With 42 varsity teams and 919 student-athletes, Harvard has the largest athletics department. A report last month by Sportico found that 21% of the players on Harvard’s rosters for the 2024-2025 season listed international hometowns, though some could be U.S. citizens or green card holders.
The immediate impact would be on F-1 and J-1 visa holders, the visa types specifically for international students, but students holding other visa types may not be impacted. Harvard had nearly 7,000 students holding F-1 and J-1 visas in the 2024-2025 school year.
The NCAA Transfer Portal has already closed for swimming & diving athletes, and the NCAA has not responded to a request for whether that deadline would be extended for these athletes.
LA 2028 = Berlin 1936
Moscow 1980 (as many countries will be boycotting the games)
Good to hear. Glad we have a president that is standing up the bullies. Harvard has plenty of $ so shouldn’t get any federal funding either.
It’s a shame it’s come to this, but reading the list above you don’t really get the sense that Harvard has been uplifting the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free. This is going to be very inconvenient for Harvard, and also for some international students that will end up just fine somewhere else. Again, I disagree with how he’s doing it, but it’s perfectly logical to say that the US government doesn’t have to enable a club for the wealthy. Whether Harvard should get tax breaks, government funding, and as many international student visas as they want are all legitimate questions that should be up for debate.
From reading the comments, I get feeling that many here feel Harvard is blameless in their current situation.
Harvard lost a 2023 US Supreme Court case that told them to cease using DEI criteria in their admissions policies. Harvard has continued to do so especially in their graduate schools and programs.
Harvard has also consistently refused to comply with Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This antisemitism is serious stuff. And it’s led to an unsafe environment for Jewish students, staff, and faculty.
Elite universities love foreign students; they comprise about 25% of the student body and pay full tuition and expenses.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. But Harvard is not blameless for… Read more »
Where are all the people who were saying “roster spots should go to domestic athletes”? Are you happy? This is beyond not okay.
If they don’t band together they are all going to have to abide or get picked off.
We should all be embarrassed with this administration. I’m saddened and sickened almost daily.
Trump is striking out at Harvard because Obama went there and he couldn’t even get an interview! What a loser.