The International Swimming League (ISL) was an annual professional swimming league, established in 2019. It features a team-based competition format with fast-paced race sessions. In 2019, the regular season started in October and the Final Match was held in December. Coverage in 2019 reported that the ISL operated with a US$20 million budget for its inaugural season, including US$7 million allocated for athlete and team prize money.Sean Ingle, "Making a splash: new big-money competition shakes up swimming", *The Guardian*, 19 June 2019. Financed by Konstantin Grigorishin, the league expressed an aim of “putting power back into the hands of the athletes.” It also enforced a strict anti-doping policy under which athletes with prior doping suspensions were banned from competition.Torrey Hart, "Grigorishin on ISL Profitability, Competitors, Prize Money and Doping Policy", SwimSwam, 20 August 2021.
After suspending operations following the 2021 season, the league announced plans in December 2025 to target a relaunch as early as 2026 under a revised commercial model.
History
FINA-ISL dispute 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 Russian-Ukrainian billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin.Making a splash: new big-money competition shakes up swimming, The Guardian (18 June 2019) ISL planned to hold an inaugural event in Turin, Italy, in December, 2018. In June, 2018, FINA sent a letter to all 209 federations, urging them not to cooperate with ISL.
After clarifying the interpretation of a rule included in section 4.5 of FINA general rules, 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.
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 after athletes decided that it would not be worth swimming at FINA sectioned meets if FINA was barring athletes from competing in the ISL. Eventually leading to Energy for Swim meet cancellation.
In January 2026, a jury in the United States found in favor of the International Swimming League in its antitrust case against World Aquatics (formerly known as FINA).
Debut 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 Hosszú and Adam Peaty). FINA announced in December 2018 the creation of a brand new league, called FINA Champions Swim Series. 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. Meanwhile, ISL also presented a newly formed representation company – ISL USA – which would have staged the semi-finals 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). 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). In June 2019, ISL released the schedule of the league inaugural season, which officially started on the first week of the following October.
Athlete bans From the beginning of the International Swimming League, the administrators established a policy of not allowing athletes with anti-doping rules violations or ethics violations to compete."Shayna Jack banned from multimillion dollar swim league after failed drug test". The Guardian. 30 July 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2022. For athlete bans due to anti-doping rules violations, the ISL relies on test results from the World Anti-Doping Agency to implement the bans.D'Addona, Dan (29 July 2019). "International Swimming League Bans Gabriel Santos, Suspends Shayna Jack After Positive Tests". Swimming World. Retrieved 12 January 2022. In March 2022, the ISL approved the ban of all Russian swimmers and staff from the Energy Standard swim club as a way of punishing Russians in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and demonstrating its support for Ukraine.Keith, Braden (22 March 2022). "ISL's Energy Standard Suspends All Russian Athletes & Support Staff". SwimSwam. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
Non-payment boycotts In October 2021, following the repeated non-payment of multiple contractors, staff, and athletes, a number of athletes proposed boycotting the 2021 ISL playoffs.Keith, Braden (23 October 2021). "ISL Athletes Mull Boycotts Over Continued League Non-Payments". SwimSwam. Retrieved 23 October 2021.Lohn, John (23 October 2021). "Report: Athletes Considering Boycott of ISL Playoffs Over Missed Payments". Swimming World. Retrieved 23 October 2021. Leading up to the 2021 playoffs, the League's breaking of their contractual obligation to pay their workers and performers dated back at least to the 2020 ISL season, where multiple athletes were not paid for the entire season.Lutton, Phil (23 October 2021). "Teams set to debate ISL boycott as tensions over unpaid wages increase". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 23 October 2021. In addition to non-payment of athletes and other workers, the ISL had already established a history of non-payment with competition venues, suppliers, and vendors across various locations, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Hungary, that dated back to season one in 2019."International Swimming League Accused of Ongoing Financial Mismanagement by Former Executives". Australasian Leisure Management. 18 September 2021. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
Invasion of Ukraine and cancellation With the vast majority of the ISL's $20 million annual funding coming from Ukrainian billionaire and businessman Konstantin Grigorishin, the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused the league to struggle even further in its finances. On 28 February, just days after the Russian invasion began, the ISL failed to pay its athletes due to being unable to remove funds from within Ukraine. On 27 March 2022, the ISL released a statement with the decision to cancel its 4th season of 2022, slated to start in July with a planned 24 competitions and $13 million prize pool for athletes. The statement makes no mention of funding, though explicitly states support for the Ukrainian effort.
College Swimming League In December 2025, the International Swimming League (ISL) backed the establishment of the College Swimming League (CSL), a new team-based collegiate competition in the United States that adopts an ISL-style match format. The CSL is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2026 with NCAA programs competing in head-to-head meets, and is intended to increase the commercial visibility of college swimming while creating a potential pathway toward professional competition.
Relaunch planning (2025–) In December 2025, ISL leadership confirmed that the league is preparing to resume competition in 2026. The league plans to operate under a reshaped commercial model, expanding sponsorship and media partnerships and staging events across multiple regions including North America, Europe and Asia. Commissioner Ben Allen described autumn 2026 as the “ideal scenario” for a relaunch, with 2027 identified as an alternative target if required.
Format ISL season 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.
ISL Matches 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.
Teams The 2019 season debuted with eight clubs in total, four from the United States, and four from Europe. In 2020 clubs from Canada and Japan were added to the league, increasing the total number of clubs to 10.ISL League final recap, Toronto and Tokyo added for 2020
TeamCityJoined2020 GMs2020 Head CoachesAmericas Conference DC Trident Washington, D.C. 2019 Kaitlin Sandeno Cyndi Gallagher LA Current Los Angeles 2019 Lenny Krayzelburg David Marsh New York Breakers New York City 2019 Tina Andrew Martin Truijens Cali Condors San Francisco 2019 Jason Lezak Jonty Skinner Toronto Titans Toronto 2020 Robert KentByron MacDonaldEurasian Conference Energy Standard Paris 2019 Jean-Francois Salessy James Gibson London Roar London 2019 Rob Woodhouse Mel Marshall Team Iron Budapest 2019 Dorina Szekeres Jozsef Nagy Aqua Centurions Rome 2019 Alessandra Guerra Matteo Giunta Tokyo Frog Kings Tokyo 2020Kosuke KitajimaDave Salo
Draft Process (2021) ISL 2021 Season became the first season in which ISL used a draft to determine rosters.The ISL Draft is designed to achieve three major objectives:
To allow each of the ISL Teams’ General Managers (GMs) to strategically position their team for maximum success in the following season; To allow ISL's less successful teams priority in selecting new team members, thereby establishing a more balanced starting position for the new season; To give the League's new swimmers the possibility to change clubs after their first year in the ISL.In 2021, this process followed the steps below:
Pre-draft: each GM announces 5 pre-selected athletes from their 2020 roster to retain for 2021.