{"id":487410,"date":"2021-09-15T05:04:20","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T12:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=487410"},"modified":"2021-09-15T16:07:31","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T23:07:31","slug":"no-tokyo-no-problem-the-non-olympians-turning-heads-in-isl-season-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/no-tokyo-no-problem-the-non-olympians-turning-heads-in-isl-season-3\/","title":{"rendered":"No Tokyo, No Problem: The Non-Olympians Turning Heads in ISL Season 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

No Tokyo, No Problem: The Non-Olympians Turning Heads in ISL Season 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every season of the International Swimming League has carried a notable first. The inaugural campaign in 2019 was an experiment in every aspect. The 2020 season brought expansion and a bubble amid a global pandemic.<\/p>\n

The question this year would be about the Olympics. Much as the league might aspire to displace the Olympics\u2019s primacy in swimming<\/a>, you won\u2019t find a swimmer whose yet in that mindset. How ISL would fit into the schedule of athletes recovering, reloading or resting was an open question for ISL Season 3. The role of the league as a force multiplier, keeping in the headlines athletes who\u2019d thrust themselves into the mainstream for the first time this summer, was one obvious possibility.<\/p>\n

\"Marco

Team Iron’s Marco Orsi; Photo Courtesy: Mike Lewis\/ISL<\/p><\/div>\n

But ISL has also revealed another dynamic, beyond reminding those other than swimming diehards that Caeleb Dressel<\/strong> and Lilly King<\/strong> aren\u2019t just dominant racers once every four years. The league is giving swimmers who missed the Tokyo festivities a way to showcase their abilities on the global stage and to make money doing it.<\/p>\n

The most spectacular embodiment of this phenomenon was Coleman Stewart<\/strong>, who set the world record in the men\u2019s 100 backstroke in his debut for the Cali Condors with a time of 48.33 seconds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had absolutely no idea what to expect,\u201d Stewart said then. \u201cThis was a complete shock. I was not expecting to go best times, really. Obviously super happy with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart missed out on Tokyo with just a so-so Olympic Trials. He was 10th in the 100 back in Omaha, fourth in the 100 butterfly and eighth in the 100 freestyle, just missing a relay spot.<\/p>\n