International Swimming League names Commonwealth Team coaches for the London 2026 All-Star Match

Dean Boxall, Ben Higson, Byron MacDonald and Rocco Meiring, whose swimmers have included Olympic champions and world-record holders, will coach a team drawn from across the Commonwealth at the London Aquatics Centre on Saturday 19 December 2026.

LONDON, UK – Friday 23 October 2026: The International Swimming League (ISL) has today announced the coaches of the Commonwealth Team, the first of the four teams that will contest the ISL All-Star Match at the London Aquatics Centre in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Saturday 19 December 2026.

The Commonwealth Team will be coached by Dean Boxall (Australia), Ben Higson (Scotland), Byron MacDonald (Canada) and Rocco Meiring (South Africa): four coaches from four Commonwealth nations on four continents, whose swimmers have won Olympic titles, world championships and set world records. They are the first coaches confirmed for the All-Star Match, in which the Commonwealth Team will face the United States, Europe and Intercontinental teams for the largest prize pool ever offered for a single night of competitive swimming.

Ben Allen, Commissioner of the International Swimming League, said: “The Commonwealth has produced some of the greatest names and nights swimming has seen, and this coaching staff belongs to that tradition. Byron, Dean, Ben and Rocco have coached Olympic champions and world-record holders, they know how to succeed on the biggest occasions, and two of them were part of the ISL’s original seasons. The first of our four teams is taking shape, and the names in the water will follow very soon.”

The Commonwealth Team’s first star athletes will be revealed very soon, with the coaches of the United States, Europe and Intercontinental Teams to be announced in the coming weeks.

Tickets for the All-Star Match go on general sale through Ticketmaster at midday (UK time) on Friday, 30 October, with fans who have pre-registered at isl.global receiving presale access from Thursday, 29 October.

The Commonwealth Team coaches

Byron MacDonald (Canada): Head coach of the University of Toronto, now in his 49th season, and Toronto Titans head coach in the league's original run. A 1972 Olympian, double Commonwealth Games champion and two-time Gemini Award-winning broadcaster, MacDonald has sent 70-plus swimmers onto international teams and coached Kylie Masse to Olympic medals, a world title and a world record.

Dean Boxall (Australia): Head coach at St Peters Western in Brisbane and a record four-time Australian Coach of the Year. Boxall guided Ariarne Titmus to back-to-back Olympic 400m freestyle titles and Mollie O’Callaghan to 200m freestyle gold at Paris 2024, where his swimmers featured in four of Australia’s seven swimming gold medals and 12 of its 18 pool medals.

Ben Higson (Scotland): Head coach of the University of Stirling’s high-performance programme, where his earlier group included Duncan Scott and Ross Murdoch. Higson has coached at three Olympic Games for three different nations (Great Britain, Ireland and Australia), led Swim Ireland’s national programme and the Western Australian Institute of Sport, and was part of London Roar’s coaching set-up in the ISL’s original seasons.

Rocco Meiring (South Africa): Head of programme and head coach of TuksSwimming at the University of Pretoria, Meiring coached Tatjana Smith to Olympic breaststroke gold at both Tokyo and Paris, and five of South Africa’s eight swimmers at the Paris Games. His group’s recent successes include Pieter Coetzé’s 2025 world 100m backstroke title, and his 50m backstroke short-course world record, set this month.

Notes to Editors:

About the International Swimming League (ISL):

Forget everything you thought you knew about swimming.

The ISL tore up the rulebook. It built something the sport had never seen before: fast, ferociously competitive, team-based racing designed for fans, built for broadcast, and made to deliver unforgettable moments. The ISL gave the biggest names in swimming what elite athletes in other premier sports already had - a stage of their own. Real prize money. Team pride. High stakes on every single length, where the clock is not the only thing that matters.

Across three unforgettable seasons between 2019 and 2021, the ISL lit up three continents with competing franchise clubs from North America, Europe and Asia, and a roster stacked with the greatest swimmers on the planet. Two-hour matches crackling with intensity. Point scoring that turned every race into a team battle. Coaches plotting line-ups, saving their strongest swimmers, and timing every selection to maximise points. Fierce rivalries igniting the moment the water broke, swimmer against swimmer, team against team, with everything on the line. The ISL didn't just prove swimming could be entertaining. It proved it could be electric.

And now, the ISL is back. The League returns sharper, smarter and built to last. This is the next chapter of a movement that changed what swimming could be and it's about to do it again, bigger and bolder than ever.

About The All-Star Match:

On Saturday 19 December 2026, the ISL is hosting its All-Star Match in London: a one-night showcase of the world's fastest swimmers in a unique two-hour head-to-head competition. This is not a heats-and-finals meet: every race counts, every touch moves the scoreboard, and one team leaves London crowned champions.

The match marks the return of the ISL, bringing back the dynamic, unpredictable version of swimming in a world-class venue with a live crowd and global audience watching the best compete head-to-head.

Expect high-octane racing from first event to last, team tactics, momentum swings, and a venue energised by a DJ, with unique visual and audio production galvanising the atmosphere between races. Whether you have followed the ISL from the start or this is your first taste of swimming reimagined, London in December is where the sport comes back to life.

About the London Aquatics Centre:

The London Aquatics Centre is a world-class, 2,800 capacity aquatics venue in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and is today one of the busiest public swimming venues in the world.

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