500 SWIMMERS ALREADY SIGNED UP FOR ISL DRAFT

The early stages of swimming’s first-ever draft have been a smashing success for the International Swimming League (ISL), with 500 of the world’s top athletes having already registered for the selection process.

Several of the league’s best swimmers are among those who have signed up, including the three highest MVP scorers from Season 2: Caeleb Dressel, Lilly King and Beryl Gastaldello.

Other prominent female swimmers who have registered include Siobhan Haughey – another top 10 MVP scorer from Season 2 – Hali Flickinger, Freya Anderson, Emily Seebohm, Olivia Smoliga, Abbey Weitzeil, and Minna Atherton. Atherton was the first swimmer to break a world record in the ISL back in Season 1.

Other male stars joining Dressel include Evgeny Rylov, Kyle Chalmers, Tom Shields, Michael Andrew and Cody Miller.

ISL Founder Konstantin Grigorishin says that the high level of interest from the athletes is an early indication of proof of concept for the draft format.

“The initial response to the ISL Draft has been absolutely outstanding with more than 300 swimmers signing up within 72 hours of us opening the registration page, and we now stand at the 500 mark,” said Grigorishin.

“The ISL is about breaking barriers both in and out of the pool, not least by creating a culture of gender equity, and with the ISL Draft we will see for the first time in the history of professional sports both men and women drafted with equal opportunity to compete in a league together.

“We want to keep the momentum going and see as many eligible male and female swimmers as possible be a part of history by participating in the ISL Draft. We encourage our valued clubs to promote the draft to the world’s swimmers, we encourage our ISL alumni to promote the draft to their peers, and we encourage all those who are eligible to join the revolution!”

The ISL Draft has been designed to fundamentally change the 10 ISL clubs’ athlete selection process, enhancing the competitive parity among the teams vying for the Season 3 title. Clubs will be given the opportunity to retain a maximum of 15 swimmers from Season 2, along with an additional swimmer maintained via an interactive online fan vote, before the teams can select 11 additional swimmers from the ISL Draft Pool. General Managers will complete their teams’ rosters, selecting from the remaining swimmers in the ISL Draft Pool only, for a maximum of 36 swimmers on their respective rosters.

Eligible swimmers interested in being selected for the ISL Draft Pool can find the registration form at https://isl.global/athlete-registry/.

The ISL Draft is scheduled to take place during the week of 21 June 2021.

You can find the full draft rules here.

ABOUT THE ISL: The International Swimming League is a global professional swimming competition that saw the completion of a second successful in 2020 with competing teams from Europe (Italy-based Aqua Centurions, France-based Energy Standard, Hungary-based Iron, and London Roar), North America (Cali Condors, DC Trident, LA Current, NY Breakers and Toronto Titans), and Asia (Tokyo Frog Kings).

ISL SOCIAL: Keep up with all the latest ISL news by following @iswimleague on Instagram and Twitter and @internationalswimmingleaue on Facebook and YouTube.

ISL WEBSITE:  https://isl.global

DIGITAL PLATFORM: Match highlights can be seen on the ISL digital platform ISLand, which can be accessed here.

RESULTS: The results of Season 2020 can be accessed here.

PHOTOS: Rights-free photo content is available here, please credit ISL.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: [email protected]