The International Swimming League debuted its 2020 rosters in a press conference today, with a few notable names sitting out the season.
U.S. swimmers in either high school or college were a given – competing in the professional ISL would force an athlete to forgo their high school and college swimming eligibility. That rules out big names like world record-holder Regan Smith or World Champs bronze medalist Katie Drabot.
But some professional-level talents are sitting out the season for any number of reasons. For some, it’s preparation for the Olympics next summer, opting to stay at their current training base and perhaps focus on long course meters, rather than taking five weeks to attend the ISL training camp with all competition in short course meters.
For others, the worldwide coronavirus pandemic has complicated the situation. And family weighs heavily in athlete decisions, too. Fan favorite and U.S. Olympian Cody Miller explained his absence from the ISL in an Instagram post today. Miller was a member of the DC Trident last season, but will sit out this season as his wife is due to give birth in November. The ISL regular season will run from mid-October to mid-November.
Here are a few of the most notable absences from ISL rosters. Keep in mind that rosters are still very much in flux. Some of these athletes could still sign with a team. Our list is mostly American-focused, but we’ll try to round up some of the top international absences as well:
- Katie Ledecky
- Simone Manuel
- Cody Miller
- Ryan Held
- Kathleen Baker
- Nathan Adrian
- Jack Conger
- Chase Kalisz
- John Shebat
- Penny Oleksiak
- Vladislav Grinev
- Anton Chupkov
- Jay Litherland
- Kaylee McKeown
- Benedetta Pilato
- Farida Osman
- Bowe Becker
- Santo Condorelli
- Anton Ipsen
- Gabby DeLoof
- Brianna Throssell
- Fantine Lesaffre
- Margherita Panziera
I don’t think anyone’s missing Miller. Teams couldn’t take the chance on a DQ
I disagree with your assertion that nobody is missing him given that by far the most comments/emails/social media posts we’ve seen about missing swimmers is Cody Miller.
The Miller DQ train left the station a long time ago. Enough.
sanchez:(
Wow didn’t notice Chase Kalisz and Ryan Held weren’t in a team
Focusing on the Olympics
Federica Pellegrini out too.
In general, ignore the rosters on the ISL website. We have confirmed that most of them are wrong in one way or another.
This is the best information we have currently about rosters: https://staging2.swimswam.com/isl-season-2-full-rosters-revealed-for-all-10-teams/
Consider that accurate for as long as it’s accurate: we’re still expecting most teams to have some changes before the season starts.
I’m pretty sure Katie Drabot graduated?
Losing big names hurts the league bad. In order to grow swimming, the league will benefit from having the biggest names possible. I get that they have to take care of themselves and their families first, but the ISL is bigger than any one person. It’s needed to advance the sport of swimming as a whole.
Simone and Ledecky huge omissions but they appear to have most of the big hitters on the men’s side which, like it or now, drives more audience than the women’s side. The most watched vids on the YT channel are Dressel/Manaudou/Chad/Peaty/Vlad
Are you really saying that these stars are obligated to swim in the ISL rather than take care of their own families? 🤡