ISL COMPETITION INDIANA UNIVERSITY

 

The ISL is in fact the first team-orientated professional league in the history of swimming. The worlds best swimmers, including 41 gold medalist from the Olympic Games 2016, are competing on behalf of eight clubs in regular season matches across Europe and the United States, with the seasons final being held in Las Vegas in december.

 

The ISL has partnered with ten different regular broadcasters, including ESPN in the United States and Eurosport in both Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, for the launch of the inaugural season.

 
At the kick-off meeting at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis it became clear from the beginning, that the ISL emphasizes on being a team event. There are team boxes on the side of the pool, the swimmers wear distinctive clothing, specially colored caps and designated lanes make it easy to follow a specific team in the pool.

 

Intermediate results being displayed on the screen help to stay up to date during a fast and entertaining two hours with back-to-back racing, kicked off by a close win in the 100 m butterfly for Sarah Sjostrom. "I was so nervous to start the competition", the captain of Energy Standard said about her historic win while adding about the atmosphere: "This is how it should be. I have been waiting for this to happen and I am really happy that it happens during my active years", the 26 year old swedish worldrecordholder said, whose team took the lead after the first day. 

 

Going head-to-head with Energy Standard all session long was the Cali Condors, who sit second after the first of two days, followed by DC Trident and Aqua Centurions. 

 

"This is really like my kind of meet. Everybody is all hyped up, I had a lot of fun swimming and cheering for my team", said Olympic Champion Lilly King of the runner up Cali Condors. "I think this is the future of swimming, it is making it more exciting, making it more accesable to the viewer, and it is making the athlets lot more money." More than four million US-Dollars in appearance money and prize money for clubs and athletes will be awarded during the season, with men and women sharing equal prize money. King: "Only positives are coming from this for me."

 

And with 28 individual events over the course of a two day leg, two swimmers per team in each event, and only twelve women and men per team, fans are bound to see some performances they usually don’t, like freestyle superstar Katie Ledecky swimming the 400 m Individual Medley for the DC Trident. "I love the 400 IM, in the short course especially", Ledecky said. "This is unlike any any other meet", the five-time Olympic champion said. "I think today was kind of a turning point. This is great for swimming and it is only gonna make swimming better for all of us in the years to come - and beyond."