Great success for the “draft” of the International Swimming League (ISL). Its promoters announced that 500 of the world’s best swimmers have registered for the professional league’s third season meetings circuit selection phase created by Russian-Ukrainian billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin. Among them, the three best athletes from the second season: Americans Caeleb Dressel and Lilly King, and the French Beryl Gastaldello. More than 300 swimmers registered in the 72 hours following the opening of the registration. For the third season, forecast in 2021, ISL teams will no longer be able to engage swimmers individually according to their own decisions. They will have to respect a selection process of several phases, in order to choose a maximum of 36 athletes. One week before the draft, which is scheduled for the 4th week of June, 2021, each general manager will announce the names of the fifteen swimmers from the 2020 season selected for the 2021 edition, plus those of the fifteen sent to the pool for selection. Internet users will then be invited to vote to select one additional member retained on each team. In a second phase, each team will be able to select eleven additional swimmers in the pool, starting with the lowest ranked team from the last season. This second phase will allow each team to get a total of 27 swimmers in their pool. In the end, managers will be able to complete their list, up to 36 athletes, by recruiting some of the non-selected athletes of the first two phases.
