Le Clos, Hosszu Among Preliminary Announced Swimmers for Dubai World Cup Stop

There’s still a lot of meets to get through before the 2014 FINA World Cup Series begins in Doha, Qatar at the end of August, but Dubai (the series’ second stop) is already announcing four big stars who are expected to enter.

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Running from August 31st-September 1st, this will be the 3rd-straight year, and 4th-time overall, that Dubai will host a stop of this series, and the stars are getting more-and-more comfortable attending.

According to meet organizers, last year’s series champions Katinka Hosszu and Chad le Clos are both planning to swim in Dubai, as are the women’s runner-up Alia Atkinson from Jamaica and last year’s men’s 4th-place finisher Roland Schoeman of South Africa.

Last year, Schoeman swept the 50 breaststroke across eight stops in the series, and won a total of 13 events. Hosszu swept the 200 IM’s and won an astonishing 32 events. Atkinson won 11 events, and le Clos swept the 200 fly and won 24 events.

Equally as important as the medals, these four swimmers amassed huge piles of cash from their success even just by showing up and competing at all 8 events. FINA boosted this series’ profile last year by rolling it right off of the European-based World Championships, meaning it was an easy trip for the world’s elites to compete in the first two stops in the Netherlands and Germany.

This year, the series will have to stand more on its own, and at least for those who last year were able to earn a year’s wage across four months of competing, the World Cup has turned that corner. These are four stars who can compete for medals at any stage, and who have already committed to starting the series in 2014. It’s a safe assumption that they’ll also be in Doha before Dubai, which provides the further benefit of allowing a preview for the 2014 World Short Course Championships.