Dressel And King Among 500 Swimmers To Sign Up For ISL Draft

Caeleb Dressel: Photo Courtesy: Mine Kasapoglu / ISL

Caeleb Dressel and Lilly King are among 500 swimmers to have registered for the selection process for the draft ahead of Season 3 of the International Swimming League (ISL).

The ISL announced a fortnight ago that the season would include a swimmer draft which would change the athlete selection process and enhance the parity of competition among the teams.

Clubs can retain a maximum of 15 swimmers from Season 2, plus one additional swimmer via an interactive online fan vote.

Lilly King: Photo Courtesy: MIKE LEWIS / ISL

Eleven further swimmers will be selected from the ISL draft pool starting with the lowest-ranked team which last season was Aqua Centurions.

General Managers will complete their teams’ rosters, selecting from the remaining swimmers in the draft pool for a maximum of 36.

The three highest MVP scorers – Dressel, King and Beryl Gastaldello – have all signed up with the draft scheduled to take place during the week of 21 June 2021.

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 of Australia was the first swimmer to break a world record in the ISL back in Season 1.

Evgeny Rylov, Kyle Chalmers, Tom Shields, Michael Andrew and Cody Miller are among the men to have signed up.

ISL founder Konstantin Grigorishin said:

Konstantin Grigorishin: Photo Courtesy: shamil sakhavatov @1amsham

“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.

“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!’’

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Leander

2 years ago

Before this draft, weren’t all the swimmers essentially free agents, who could decide where they wanted to swim? If so, then a draft is a great step backward for swimmers.