Auburn University's Margaret Hoelzer swims the 200-meter backstroke, as does teammate Kirsty Coventry.

They're now in Athens, Greece, competing in the 2004 Summer Olympics that began Friday. The catch is, they're competing against each other this time. Hoelzer will swim for the United States, Coventry for her native Zimbabwe.

But they will suspend their Tiger loyalties only temporarily. "When all is said and done," Hoelzer remarked, "we may be from different countries, but we're still on the same team."

Hoelzer and Coventry reflect not only the large contingent of Auburn athletes in these Games but the diversity of nationalities found among the 2004 Olympians with ties to this state.

Forty-nine athletes in the 2004 Games carry ties to the state of Alabama. Of those, 28 competed for Auburn, most of them in swimming or track and field. No other SEC school has more athlete ties to this year's Olympics than Auburn.

Spectators won't find most of this state's contingent, however, if they watch only the delegation with the red, white and blue. Sixteen of the 49 Alabama-connected athletes compete for the United States; the rest compete for their native countries.

Auburn track coach Ralph Spry said strong college programs lead to Olympic accomplishment, and that in turn leads to even stronger college programs.

"We recruit nationwide and worldwide, and you have no better ambassador than your own student-athletes who can represent the university in that fashion," he said.

Auburn swim coach David Marsh, who has 13 swimmers and divers in these Olympics, believes Auburn athletic programs provide an environment that promotes Olympic dreams.

"It's supported here," Marsh said. "I think it's encouraged, and I think now there's a high expectation around this university."

The athlete recruiting done by Auburn and other major U.S. colleges has gone international, and that's reflected in the 21 countries represented by this year's state contingent.

Of Marsh's 13 swimmers, four compete for the United States. Of Spry's 15 track and field competitors, two compete for the United States. Four of the University of Alabama's 13 Olympians represent the U.S.

Stanford University has 42 Olympians, including 37 on Team USA. The University of Southern California has 35, of whom 18 would hear "The Star-Spangled Banner" if they win a gold medal.

Often, a foreign athlete has a better chance than an American athlete to make his country's Olympic squad because of the smaller pool of candidates.

Marsh, who has swimmers from 10 countries in the Olympics, said international swimmers are among the best he can recruit. "They're a higher-level athlete, higher ranked in the world," he said.

Marsh has no reservations about giving athletic scholarships to foreign-born athletes.

"What I'm hired to do is to produce the best program I can with the best people," Marsh said. "My recruiting philosophy No.1 is to start in-state. If I could recruit only in-state, I'd love to do that."

But the reality, he said, is he must also recruit regionally, nationally and internationally.

"My philosophy also is to always have our scholarships be, at most, 20 to 25 percent out-of-country students," he said.

None of his male swimmers attends on full scholarship. They pay $8,000 to $15,000 per year to swim at Auburn, he said, when they could get full scholarships at some other schools in this country.

"A guy like George Bovell, who's already a national hero in Trinidad and Tobago, his family still digs in their wallet to help pay for him to swim at Auburn. I think that's part of how they respect what he gets here at Auburn," he said.

Beyond their athletic contributions, the international athletes add to the Auburn experience for domestic students, Marsh believes.

"There are lessons learned within our team environment that many times have a higher impact on them just by understanding other people's cultures and backgrounds than anything they might learn in the classroom or outside the classroom," he said.

The abundance of Auburn athletes in the swimming competitions in Athens has been noticed, said Marsh, who is in Athens. "The comments around the (pool) deck have been Auburn's got so many people at this meet, they should be their own country."