FINA Drops Star-Studded Participant List for 2019 Champions Series

Rio 2016 Olympic champions Katinka Hosszu, Anthony Ervin, Lilly King, and Ryan Murphy are among the participants confirmed for the inaugural FINA Champions Series, the governing body announced Friday.

World record holder Kathleen Baker and multi-time Olympic medalists Chad le Clos, Emily Seebohm, Dana Vollmer, Federica Pellegrini, Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Laszlo Cseh will also join the series. Notably absent are newly-professional Americans Katie Ledecky, Simone Manuel, and Caeleb Dressel, as well as world champion and Rio silver medalist Chase Kalisz. The current field is also without any Japanese stars.

The Champions Series will be swum in long course with athletes participating on an invite-only basis and will include a team scoring format. It was announced in December amid FINA’s attempt to block the International Swim League, which has a similar format. The three-leg series has stops Guangzhou April 27-28, Budapest May 11-12, and Indianapolis May 31-June 1.

FINA sent invites to 45 male swimmers from 15 different countries, and to 37 female swimmers from 17 different countries, but we don’t know exactly who was invited. The list of invited swimmers includes “Rio 2016 Olympic medallists, Budapest 2017 World Championships’ medallists, World Record holders, and leaders of the 2018 FINA World Swimming Rankings,” FINA says.

SwimSwam previously reported that Yuliya Efimova, Sarah Sjostrom, Vlad Morozov, Anton Chupkov, Kliment Kolesnikov, Michael Andrew, Cate Campbell, Bruno Fratus, Felipe Lima, Nicholas SantosPieter Timmers, Etiene Medieros, and Franziska Hentke would participate.

Below is the running list of swimmers set to participate in at least one stop based on FINA‘s announcement and other reports:

The competition as a whole will lack distance events, with each meet including timed finals of just 50, 100, and 200m races in freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly, as well as a 400 free and 200 IM. FINA will award nearly $4 million in prize money across the series, making it the richest swimming event in the organization’s history. It will also cover athletes’ travel costs and provide them with appearance money.

The series has drawn mixed reactions from swimmers who have been vocal in their criticism of FINA over the past few months. While the international swimmers Sjostrom and Campbell, as well as American Michael Andrew (currently suing FINA along with Hosszu and Tom Shields) have committed, Britain’s Adam Peaty announced Wednesday he would opt out but called the series “a step in the right direction.”

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Name
5 years ago

I think this is the most “In This Story” tags I’ve seen on a single article on Swimswam.

Gehad
5 years ago

No one from Africa?

Non-Bureau puppet
Reply to  Gehad
5 years ago

Where do you think all the observers/officials/general hangers on will come from? As always FINA gravy train will deliver support in case there is an uprising in the ranks.

Taa
5 years ago

It would be a hell of a lot easier if they would just pay everyone and cancel the meets.

SUM Ting Wong
Reply to  Taa
5 years ago

I feel I should have some interest . Rio & Budapest were so long ago I had to look up results. This was a different era , some are pre Donald!

dks
5 years ago

Baker 200 Back and 200 IM but no 100 Back? She’s the world record holder and medalist at Olympics and Worlds…

spectatorn
5 years ago

Unless a lot more high level swimmers sign on soon and participate in more events and locations, the line up may look odd. Is FINA going to eliminate some of the events or tell swimmers that they will swim by themselves?

So far, on the women side, only one swimmer in 50fly, 50 back,100back, 200fly, 200free and 400free, plus not sure if anyone swim 200breast (YE only?). On the men side, only one swimmer in 50free (maybe BF will be 2nd person), 100 back (will RM swim it?), 200fly, 200IM and 400free; plus no one in 100 breast, 200 back (RM?) and 200free.

Superfan
Reply to  spectatorn
5 years ago

Agree. It might be a lame competition with not many exciting races. Totally weird

bear drinks beer
Reply to  spectatorn
5 years ago

There are definitely more swimmers who have confirmed participation but whose names are not announced by FINA. Maybe not at the high level you expected, though.

spectatorn
Reply to  bear drinks beer
5 years ago

???

“The Champions Series will be swum in long course with athletes participating on an invite-only basis and will include a team scoring format….

…The list of invited swimmers includes “Rio 2016 Olympic medallists, Budapest 2017 World Championships’ medallists, World Record holders, and leaders of the 2018 FINA World Swimming Rankings,” FINA says.”

bear drinks beer
Reply to  spectatorn
5 years ago

FINA didn’t specify the meaning of ‘leaders of world rankings’. A world NO.10 swimmer could also be in this category. Didn’t MA get his invitation for ranking 4th or 5th in the 50 breast?

FINA also sent out another wave of offers after some rejected. According to Brazilian media, Fratus received his invitation after Cielo declined.

spectatorn
5 years ago

assume typo – Molly Hannis swim both 50 Back and 100 Back? Assume it should be 50 Breast and 100 Breast.

bear drinks beer
5 years ago

This doesn’t seem like the full list. Andrew, Hentke, Heintz , Fratus etc. also confirmed participation. Looks like they only pick some notable big names to show the ‘high level’ of their competition.

Meeeeee
5 years ago

I don’t get it. I guess the $$ overrides how FINA has treated the sport?

About Torrey Hart

Torrey Hart

Torrey is from Oakland, CA, and majored in media studies and American studies at Claremont McKenna College, where she swam distance freestyle for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team. Outside of SwimSwam, she has bylines at Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, SB Nation, and The Student Life newspaper.

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