International Swimming League

At the start of the 2018 season, the only major annual swimming tournament sanctioned by FINA was FINA Swimming World Cup. International Swimming League, a team-based professional swimming series, was founded in 2017 by Ukrainian billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin.[2] ISL planned to hold an inaugural event in Turin, Italy, in December, 2018.[3] In June, 2018, FINA sent a letter to all 209 federations, urging them not to cooperate with ISL.[4]

After clarifying the interpretation of a rule included in section 4.5 of FINA general rules,[5] FINA stated that the Energy for swim meet was now classified as an international event for that season, given that "a competition which is conceptually designed to have a majority of foreign participants is not a national competition”, and thus it needed to be approved within the ordinary six-month window.[6]

Since the approval window was already expired, the athletes participating in that meet would have been disqualified from one to two years by FINA and any world records set during the event would not have been recognized.

The negotiations between the parties officially broke down on 15 November 2018, eventually leading to Energy for Swim meet cancellation.[7]

Despite negotiations failure between FINA, ISL and Energy Standard Group - that would have organized Energy for Swim meet along with FIN - several athletes sustained the new idea of a team-based swimming competition (among which Katinka Hosszu and Adam Peaty). FINA announced in December 2018 the creation of a brand new league, called FINA Champions Swim Series.[8] The first ISL team to be officially announced was German side ONEFlow Aquatics (which would not have taken part to the inaugural season, eventually) in January 2019, after which ISL announced also the remaining three European teams and the four American teams in the following months.[9]
Meanwhile, ISL also presented a newly formed representation company - ISL USA - which would have staged the semifinals and Final Match, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, and assisted the new US clubs in their operations (including scouting talent, signing athletes and running their own swimming meets).[10] A crucial step towards the creation of ISL was made when FINA announced that athletes taking part in Non-FINA sanctioned events would not have been banned and that similar competitions would be allowed, also confirming that all the world records set in the first two stages would not have been considered (because of clashing with World Cup events).[11][12]
In June 2019, ISL released the schedule of the league inaugural season, which officially started on the first week of the following October.[13]

The season is split into a regular championship and a final. In the regular championship clubs earn points from participating in matches according to the following principles: 4 points for 1st place in the match, 3 for 2nd, 2 for 3rd and 1 for 4th. After all of the championship matches, the 4 clubs with the highest number of points advance to the final, where the winner of the league (the ISL Champions) are determined. Each club can have a maximum roster of 32 athletes. At each match 28 of these are permitted to compete - 12 men and 12 women can swim individual races, while 2 men and 2 women can be used as "relay only" athletes.[14]

Four clubs take part in a match, an ISL match lasts two days. During the first season, an ISL match consisted of 37(39 in the 2020 season) races: 30(32) individual, 5 team relays and 2 skin races. Each race consists of 2 representatives from each of the clubs. Points are distributed after the race in the following manner: 9 points for 1st, 7 for 2nd, ... 1 for 8th. Points are not awarded to athletes (teams) that fail to finish a race. In addition, points are doubled in relays and are awarded after each of the 3 skin race heats.

The points of the clubs’ representatives are then added together and go towards the total points result of their respective clubs.

A victory in a race does not guarantee maximum club points. As an example, club representatives that finish 1st and 7th in a race will earn less points for their respective clubs than those who finish 2nd and 4th: they will score 11 and 12 total points, respectively.

A match is won by the club that has scored the most points in all of the 37 races. Similarly, the rest of the clubs are distributed through 2nd to 4th place, respective of the points they score during the entire match. Theoretically, a match could be won by a team that has not won a single race.

In the eventuality two or more clubs end up with the same number of points after the match, an extra mixed medley 4x50m relay shall take place, the outcome of which will mirror the final results of the match.[15]

A particular points scoring system has been introduced for relay races, which score double points than individual events. In order to force athletes to put their best forward every time they step on the blocks and to avoid a lack of engagement, minimum time standards have been established.

If an athlete is ahead of some athletes in his/her race by a margin bigger than the jackpot time, the points of these athletes are awarded to the club of the winner of the race. Theoretically, the winner of the race that out touches all of his opponents by more than the jackpot time (full jackpot) can earn 37 points for his club in an individual race (individual full jackpot), 74 points in a relay (relay full jackpot) and 85 points in a skin race, if he manages to win all three stages by more than the jackpot time (triple full jackpot). For example, if the winner for men’s 100m freestyle swims 45.00, while the second place swims 47.00, the winner of the race wins full jackpot, since the difference between the leader of the race and the rest of the field was more than the jackpot time margin. Thus, the winner of 100m freestyle would earn 37 points for his team, while the rest of the athletes in the race would earn 0 points. In the case of a full jackpot, all three other teams receive 0 points for the race. In case an athlete fails to show up for a race or gets disqualified, the winner of the race will be awarded with his/her points and that swimmer will receive a penalty according to the “penalties” table. The jackpot times are seen in the table below:

If a relay or swimmer is slower than the times indicated in the table below, it gets a penalty of points A relay slower than the time standard gets 2 points deducted whereas an athlete slower than the respective time indicated gets instead 1 point of penalty.

On the table all of the minimum time standards (SCM) for the events are compared to the world records.

If an athlete (or a relay team) is disqualified or does not finish the race, points are not awarded for his club, while two points (four for relay teams) are subtracted from the club’s overall performance. If an athlete (or a relay team) did not appear for a race, points are not awarded for his club, while four points (eight for relay teams) are subtracted from the club’s overall performance. In both cases, the disqualified athlete and the athlete that didn’t show up, it is considered that those athletes finished the race last, while the points those swimmers received for getting last in a race are awarded to the winner of that race.

A Most Valuable Player (MVP) is determined after each match and at the end of the entire ISL season.

The criteria for an MVP is the number of points the swimmer has accumulated towards the overall team score for;

(1) The match at hand.

(2) The whole season.

After each match, only one MVP is selected out of all participating swimmers in that specific match. (Match MVP)

At the conclusion of the season one MVP is chosen from all the swimmers who took part in that particular season of ISL. (Season MVP).[18]

A skin race is a series of back-to-back-to-back 50 meters (SCM) races of various strokes (Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly or Freestyle) operating on a knockout basis: In the first round four swimmers are eliminated (out of 8), second round two swimmers are eliminated leaving the 3rd and last round consisting of only two swimmers racing each other in a head-to-head final race. Skin races’ rounds are held every 3 minutes. The athletes can warm down in the pool or can get a short massage from their team's physiotherapist behind the blocks between each round.The athletes knocked out of the race must return to their team's area. In Round 3, if a swimmer is disqualified (DSQ), he/she still receives the points he/she accumulated in rounds 1 and 2; and, if both swimmers are DSQ, they will then race again, in order to determine the winner of the round - the race will again be conducted on 3’.

The lanes, that the qualified athletes will use in the following round, are to be determined according to their team's lane assignment for the day. ISL skin races score as follows:[18]

The 2019 season budget was US$20m, with over US$6m of this being appearance and prize money for the athletes.[20]