The London Roar will send a roster of 13 men and 13 women to their first-ever International Swimming League (ISL) meet this coming weekend in Lewisville, Texas. Competition will run October 19th and 20th.
- See also: New York Breakers’ roster for Lewisville.
- See also: LA Current roster for Lewisville.
- See also: Iron roster for Lewisville.
The team will be without many of its biggest stars: specifically its British contingent, who are elsewhere in the United States on a training trip in Arizona. Among those absent: Adam Peaty, the World Record holding breaststroker who is arguably the most dominant in his events in the world (though not as much in short course as long course).
The team will also be missing Spaniard Mireia Belmonte. No reason for her absence is given, though she did withdraw from last weekend’s FINA World Cup with a stomach issue. She has been dealing with ongoing health issues over the last 2 years that led to her finishing no higher than 8th (in both the 800 and 1500 freestyles) at the World Championships. In peak form, the 28-year old Belmonte would be one of the most valuable swimmers in the league – she has 4 Olympic medals, and at the 2014 World Short Course Championships won 4 individual gold medals in a marathon schedule that included 200 fly, 400 IM, 400 free, and 800 free.
With only 14 announced men and 15 announced women coming into this week, a few new names have appeared on the Roar roster to help fill their roster for the absences.
Missing from Lewisville Roster:
- Adam Peaty
- James Guy
- Duncan Scott
- Mireia Belmonte
- Siobhan-Marie O’Connor
Added to Lewisville Roster:
While the absence of a true superstar like Peaty hurts the Roar’s roster, they are still well-covered in the breaststrokes thanks to Russia’ Kirill Prigoda, who was the 2018 World Short Course Champion in the 200 breaststroke; and Matthew Wilson, who rose to a surprise silver in the 200 breaststroke at last summer’s World Championships in long course.
The bigger hit will be to their men’s and mixed relays, especially, without James Guy and Duncan Scott. Guy was 7th at the World Championships in the 100 fly while Scott took a bronze medal in the 200 free and finished 5th in the 200 IM. ALong with Peaty, they made up three-fourths of Great Britain’s gold medal winning and European Record 400 medley relay, with Scott and Guy both swimming in finals on the country’s 5th-place 400 free and 800 free relays.
The additions of Peter Bernek and Bruno Fratus will help a little there, though neither is a perfect fit. Fratus is almost exclusively a 50 meter swimmer at this point of his career, while Bernek will help cover for Duncan and Guy in the 200 (1:47.4/1:42.4 bests) and 400 (3:46.2/3:34.3) bests, but isn’t as good in the 100 (50.2/48.8 bests). He is a better short course swimmer than long course swimmer, generally, so he should still be able to help with the London relays alongside Kyle Chalmers and Cam McEvoy, who in long course are the #2 and #3 all-time performers in textile suits.
The team also still has the best women’s sprint group in the league, including Australian sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell and Emma McKeon. That group is the 3 fastest legs of 4 that own the current World Record in the women’s 400 free relay.
The London Roar will compete against the New York Breakers, LA Current, and Iron this weekend in Lewisville. For all 4 teams, which make up “Group B” of the league, this is their debut after “Group A” swam the last 2 weekends in Indianapolis and Naples, Italy. For London, the goal will be to keep themselves in close enough contention to Iron at this meet to have a chance at making up ground later in the season. From Group A, Energy Standard won both meets and is a near-lock for Vegas, while Aqua Centurions lost both meets and are essentially eliminated from championship contention.
London Roar roster for Lewisville stop of ISL 2019:
| Men | Women |
| Alexander Graham | Boglarka Kapas |
| Bruno Fratus | Bronte Campbell |
| Cam McEvoy | Cate Campbell |
| Christian Diener | Emma McKeon |
| Elijah Winnington | Holly Hibbott |
| Finlay Knox | Holly Barratt |
| Guilherme Guido |
Jeanette Otteson
|
| Kirill Prigoda | Jess Hansen |
| Kyle Chalmers | Marie Wattel |
| Matt Wilson | Minna Atherton |
| Peter Bernek | Sarah Vasey |
| Vini Lanza | Sydney Pickrem |
| Yuri Kisil | Taylor McKeown |
I think the awards night this year is in late November in Sydney ( not after short course ). The start lists are out for next weeks national short course , not that many big names this time so might see some new young ones come through. I saw Mack Horton is swimming though, also KIAH Melverton, Jenna Strauch, Matt Temple, David Temple, William Yang and Joseph Schooling.
Edit – David Morgan
There’s been a lot of underperforming so far. Lots of focus on the top 2 or 3, and the superstars, but there have been some real dog swims from places 4-8.
The Aussies may surprise you Ol’ Longhorn
According to Swimming World, Peaty should be making his ISL debut at Budapest.
1. Only teams that get to the final meet will see more or less noticeable prize.
2. The half of ISL swimmers won’t be in Las Vegas.
3. About 90% of swimmers who won’t be in Las Vegas will get practically nothing in Prize money during preliminary part of ISL season.
4. It’s practically certain what would be two best European teams.
5.So for more than 40% of ISL swimmers the guaranteed by contract salary (3-6 thousands dollars) will exceed substantially prize money. Those will seek for any acceptable excuse to skip the meet and the only concern will be to swim to the level to have a contract for the next season. There is practically… Read more »
I’m not sure which are the 2 European teams? Energy Standard and Roar or Iron?
So, so, but in Lewisville Iron will be over and the other weekend is in Budapest. Basicly London Roar, but without Peaty, Guy and Scott not. Belmonte doesn’t matter this year.
who are their Fly guys?
Lanza, I’d assume. With the absence of Guy, they might need someone to swim an off-event. Maybe Chalmers could do the 100 fly? It seems he has the best LCM PB of the bunch.
will be fun to watch those guys go at it
The Challenge is that fans want to be able to see pro swimmers live. Swimmers they may not otherwise EVER see on a professional level. If those swimmers, who have signed professional contracts to attend meets that their team are scheduled for, then they should. Otherwise, return on investment plummets, and investors go south.
One good answer would have been to be patient and wait a year before dropping that kind of cash. Pro swimmers can afford a tour and missed training post Olympic year. This year….NO.
In a once in a rare time opportunity, timing and strategy are extremely poor. Whoever sold these investors on this for right now did a probable disservice to this concepts future. … Read more »
Looks like they left the Aussies to do the heavy lifting this meet lol
why not – good for their training towards Tokyo & keeping the momentum from last Worlds .
And they plan to add more teams? Is there really enough top tier swimmers to go around that aren’t already on teams?
To me, the viability of that comes down to whether they can get buy in from the Asian countries. China and Japan are very deep – not quite to US standards of depth, but they’ve got a lot of swimmers that the average fan hasn’t heard of that would be viable to fill out the back end of a lot of rosters, in addition to the more obvious stars that we all know so well.
and it’s not just about the stars anyway. The tactical aspect of it provides an opportunity for the reliable grinders that can bring good results to multiple swims in a short span of time. I’m not sure if there is a limit to how often a single swimmer can swim in one ISL meet. In Germany, we have a swimming league, structured like the Bundesliga in football with a first and second Bundesliga and then regional leagues below that, where a team swims the entire Olympic program (sans relays) twice in a weekend and every swimmer is only allowed to swim each race once and five races in total (but it’s divided into a women’s league and a men’s league).… Read more »