The 2021 International Swimming League draft has concluded, and we’ve got early-look rosters for all ten franchises.
You can our live draft coverage here, and can follow the full run of ISL personnel coverage in our event channel here. Teams were able to retain up to 16 athletes from previous seasons, with up to 11 more athletes drafted across a rookie round and fourteen general draft rounds.
We expect many changes to these rosters over the next few months (listed below), but these rosters do give a starting point for how each franchise will look in 2021.
- Some drafted athletes will ultimately withdraw from the league, or never intended to swim in the league at all. We saw that with Noe Ponti (drafted to Tokyo, but still committed to staying in the NCAA), Maxime Grousset (drafted by New York despite never entering the draft pool), and Aimee Willmott (drafted by Toronto, but not registered with the league).
- Teams can continue to add to their rosters via free agency, signing undrafted swimmers from the draft pool. Teams must carry at least 14 men and 14 women, and can sign up to 18 men and 18 women. Rosters must be finalized within 30 days after the draft, which would make July 30 the deadline for signing free agents.
- We’d expect at least one or two new names to express interest in joining the league for next season. Though the ISL had set a hard deadline of May 30 for athletes to register, it remains to be seen if the rules are bent for any high-profile swimmers who decide they’d like to join the league over the next month.
Teams are listed in last year’s finish order.
Athletes are listed with their draft pick in a “Round.Pick” format. So the 5th pick of the first round would be “1.05.” The rookie-only round is listed with the letter “R” for the round.
Cali Condors
- GM: Jason Lezak
- Head Coach: Jeff Julian
Athletes:
| Round | Swimmer | Stroke | Country | |
| 1 | Retained | Kelsi Dahlia | FL | USA |
| 2 | Retained | Molly Hannis | BR | USA |
| 3 | Retained | Justin Ress | BK | USA |
| 4 | Retained | Beata Nelson | BK | USA |
| 5 | Retained | Coleman Stewart | BK | USA |
| 6 | Retained | Marcin Cieslak | FL/IM | POL |
| 7 | Retained | Kacper Majchrzak | FR | POL |
| 8 | Retained | Hali Flickinger | FL | USA |
| 9 | Retained | Erika Brown | FR/FL | USA |
| 10 | Retained | Olivia Smoliga | BK | USA |
| 11 | Retained | Nic Fink | BR | USA |
| 12 | Retained | Natalie Hinds | FR | USA |
| 13 | Retained | Townley Haas | DFR | USA |
| 14 | Retained | Lilly King | BR | USA |
| 15 | Retained | Caeleb Dressel | FL/FR | USA |
| 16 | Retained (fan vote) | Eddie Wang | FL | TPE |
| 17 | R.10 | Maaike de Waard | BK/FL | NED |
| 18 | 5.10 | Brodie Williams | IM/BK | GBR |
| 19 | 6.10 | Oleg Kostin | FL | RUS |
| 20 | 7.10 | Aleksandr Krasnykh | FR | RUS |
| 21 | 8.10 | Leonie Kullman | DFR | GER |
| 22 | 9.10 | Emily Escobedo | BR | USA |
| 23 | 10.10 | Jesse Puts | FR | NED |
| 24 | 11.08 | Mark Szaranek | IM | GBR |
| 25 | 12.06 | Sherridon Dressel | BK | USA |
| 26 | 13.04 | Khader Baqlah | FR | JOR |
| 27 | 14.02 | Kevin Cordes | BR | USA |
Energy Standard
- GM: James Gibson
- Head Coach: Tom Rushton
Athletes:
| Round | Swimmer | Stroke | Country | |
| 1 | Retained | Sarah Sjostrom | FR/FL | SWE |
| 2 | Retained | Siobhan Haughey | FR | HKG |
| 3 | Retained | Chad Le Clos | FL | RSA |
| 4 | Retained | Kliment Kolesnikov | BK | RUS |
| 5 | Retained | Emily Seebohm | BK | AUS |
| 6 | Retained | Ilya Shymanovich | BR | BLR |
| 7 | Retained | Evgeny Rylov | BK | RUS |
| 8 | Retained | Benedetta Pilato | BR | ITA |
| 9 | Retained | Mary-Sophie Harvey | IM | CAN |
| 10 | Retained | Anastasiya Shkurdai | FL/IM | BLR |
| 11 | Retained | Madeline Banic | FL | USA |
| 12 | Retained | Kregor Zirk | FR/FL | EST |
| 13 | Retained | Femke Heemskerk | FR | NED |
| 14 | Retained | Andrey Zhilkin | FL | RUS |
| 15 | Retained | Florent Manaudou | FR | FRA |
| 16 | Retained (fan vote) | Ben Proud | FR | GBR |
| 17 | R.09 | Evgenia Chikunova | BR | RUS |
| 18 | 5.09 | Viktoria Gunes | BR | TUR |
| 19 | 6.09 | Max Stupin | IM | RUS |
| 20 | 7.09 | Felipe Lima | BR | BRA |
| 21 | 8.09 | Charlie Swanson | IM | USA |
| 22 | 9.09 | Boglarka Kapas | FL | HUN |
| 23 | 10.09 | Etiene Medeiros | BK | BRA |
| 24 | 11.07 | Helena Rosendahl Bach | FL/FR | DEN |
| 25 | 12.05 | James Guy | FR/FL | GBR |
| 26 | 13.03 | Marco de Tullio | DFR | ITA |
| 27 | 14.01 | Clement Mignon | FR | FRA |
London Roar
- GM: Rob Woodhouse
- Head Coach: Stephen Tigg
Athletes:
| Round | Swimmer | Stroke | Country | |
| 1 | Retained | Emma Mckeon | FL/FR | AUS |
| 2 | Retained | Kyle Chalmers | FR | AUS |
| 3 | Retained | Kira Toussaint | BK | NED |
| 4 | Retained | Sydney Pickrem | IM | CAN |
| 5 | Retained | Alia Atkinson | BR | JAM |
| 6 | Retained | Duncan Scott | FR/IM | GBR |
| 7 | Retained | Freya Anderson | FR | GBR |
| 8 | Retained | Luke Greenbank | BK | GBR |
| 9 | Retained | Tom Dean | DFR | GBR |
| 10 | Retained | Guilherme Guido | BK | BRA |
| 11 | Retained | Marie Wattel | FL | FRA |
| 12 | Retained | Annie Lazor | BR | USA |
| 13 | Retained | Kirill Prigoda | BR | RUS |
| 14 | Retained | Minna Atherton | BK | AUS |
| 15 | Retained | Cate Campbell | FR | AUS |
| 16 | Retained (fan vote) | Adam Peaty | BR | GBR |
| 17 | R.08 | Kenzo Simons | FR | NED |
| 18 | 4.08 | Vini Lanza | FL | BRA |
| 19 | 5.08 | Dylan Carter | FL/FR | TTO |
| 20 | 6.08 | Christian Diener | BK | GER |
| 21 | 7.08 | Ross Murdoch | BR | GBR |
| 22 | 8.08 | Teppei Morimoto | FL | JPN |
| 23 | 9.08 | Ilaria Bianchi | FL | ITA |
| 24 | 10.08 | Andi Murez | FR | ISR |
| 25 | 11.06 | Zac Incerti | FR | AUS |
| 26 | 12.04 | Katsumi Nakamura | FR | JPN |
| 27 | 13.02 | Jenna Laukkanen | BR | FIN |
LA Current
- GM: Lenny Krayzelburg
- Head Coach: David Marsh
Athletes:
| Round | Swimmer | Stroke | Country | |
| 1 | Retained | Tom Shields | FL | USA |
| 2 | Retained | Beryl Gastaldello | FL/FR | FRA |
| 3 | Retained | Katie Mclaughlin | FL | USA |
| 4 | Retained | Madison Wilson | FR | AUS |
| 5 | Retained | Kristian Gkolomeev | FR | GRE |
| 6 | Retained | Ryan Held | FR | USA |
| 7 | Retained | Maxime Rooney | FR/FL | USA |
| 8 | Retained | Anastasia Gorbenko | IM | ISR |
| 9 | Retained | Kathleen Baker | BK | USA |
| 10 | Retained | Helena Gasson | IM | FRA |
| 11 | Retained | Apostolos Christou | BK | GRE |
| 12 | Retained | Abbey Weitzeil | FR | USA |
| 13 | Retained | Ryan Murphy | BK | USA |
| 14 | Retained | Tomoe Hvas | FL | NOR |
| 15 | Retained | Fernando Scheffer | DFR | BRA |
| 16 | Retained (fan vote) | Julia Sebastian | BR | ARG |
| 17 | R.07 | Martin Malyutin | FR | RUS |
| 18 | 4.07 | Sara Franceschi | IM | ITA |
| 19 | 5.07 | Will Licon | BR | USA |
| 20 | 6.07 | Valentin Dumont | FR | BEL |
| 21 | 7.07 | Abrahm DeVine | IM | USA |
| 22 | 8.07 | Alina Zmushka | BR | IRO |
| 23 | 9.07 | Matt Wilson | BR | AUS |
| 24 | 10.07 | Anna Ntountounaki | FL | GRE |
| 25 | 11.05 | Bronte Campell | FR | AUS |
| 26 | 12.03 | Breno Correia | FR | BRA |
| 27 | 13.01 | Javier Acevedo | BK | CAN |
Iron
- GM: Dorina Szekeres
- Head Coach: Luka Gabrilo
Athletes:
| Round | Swimmer | Stroke | Country | |
| 1 | Retained | Ranomi Kromowidjojo | FR/FL | NED |
| 2 | Retained | Nicholas Santos | FRL | BRA |
| 3 | Retained | Katinka Hosszu | IM | HUN |
| 4 | Retained | Melanie Henique | FL | FRA |
| 5 | Retained | Robert Glinta | BK | ROU |
| 6 | Retained | Emre Sakci | BR | TUR |
| 7 | Retained | Veronika Andrusenko | FR | RUS |
| 8 | Retained | David Verraszto | IM | HUN |
| 9 | Retained | Emilie Beckmann | FL | DEN |
| 10 | Retained | Kristof Milak | FL | HUN |
| 11 | Retained | Ida Hulkko | BR | FIN |
| 12 | Retained | Leonardo Santos | IM | BRA |
| 13 | Retained | Guilherme Basseto | BK | BRA |
| 14 | Retained | Maria Ugolkova | IM | SUI |
| 15 | Retained | Thom de Boer | FR | NED |
| 16 | Retained (fan vote) | Marco Orsi | FR | ITA |
| 17 | R.06 | Barbora Seemanova | FR | CZE |
| 18 | 3.06 | Mikhail Vekovishchev | FL/FR | RUS |
| 19 | 4.06 | Ingeborg Loyning | BK | NOR |
| 20 | 5.06 | Jenna Strauch | BR | AUS |
| 21 | 6.06 | Bernhard Reitshammer | IM | AUT |
| 22 | 7.06 | Matt Richards | FR | GBR |
| 23 | 8.06 | Costanza Cocconcelli | IM/BK | ITA |
| 24 | 9.06 | Andrej Barna | FR | SRB |
| 25 | 10.06 | Africa Zamorano | IM/BK | ESP |
| 26 | 11.04 | Kirill Strelnikov | BR | RUS |
| 27 | 12.02 | Lukas Maertens | DFR | GER |
Tokyo Frog Kings
- GM: Kosuke Kitajima
- Head Coach: David Salo
Athletes:
| Round | Swimmer | Stroke | Country | |
| 1 | Retained | Catie Deloof | BK/FR | USA |
| 2 | Retained | Suzuka Hasegawa | FL | JPN |
| 3 | Retained | Vladimir Morozov | FR/IM | RUS |
| 4 | Retained | Takeshi Kawamoto | BK | JPN |
| 5 | Retained | Yasuhiro Koseki | BR | JPN |
| 6 | Retained | Leah Smith | DFR | USA |
| 7 | Retained | Kanako Watanabe | BR | JPN |
| 8 | Retained | Tomoru Honda | FL | JPN |
| 9 | Retained | Chihiro Igarashi | DFR | JPN |
| 10 | Retained | Daiya Seto | IM/FL | JPN |
| 11 | Retained (fan vote) | Cristian Quintero | DFR | VEN |
| 12 | R.05 | Paige Madden | DFR | USA |
| 13 | 3.05 | Cassie Wild | BK | GBR |
| 14 | 4.05 | Grigory Tarasevich | BK | RUS |
| 15 | 5.05 | Nandor Nemeth | FR | HUN |
| 16 | 6.05 | Mallory Comerford | FR | USA |
| 17 | 7.05 | Ivan Girev | FR | RUS |
| 18 | 8.05 | Bowe Becker | FR | USA |
| 19 | 9.05 | Aly Tetzloff | FR | USA |
| 20 | 12.01 | Alessandro Pinzuti | BR | ITA |
*Forfeited pick 10.05 for drafting Sarah Vasey (already retained)
*Forfeited pick 11.03 for drafting Noe Ponti (not competing in ISL)
Toronto Titans
- GM: Rob Kent
- Head Coach: Byron MacDonald
Athletes:
| Round | Swimmer | Stroke | Country | |
| 1 | Retained | Kylie Masse | BK | CAN |
| 2 | Retained | Anton McKee | BR | ISL |
| 3 | Retained | Shane Ryan | BK | IRL |
| 4 | Retained | Kelsey Wog | BR | CAN |
| 5 | Retained | Blake Pieroni | FR | USA |
| 6 | Retained | Louise Hansson | FL | SWE |
| 7 | Retained | Tessa Cieplucha | IM | CAN |
| 8 | Retained | Kayla Sanchez | FR/FL | CAN |
| 9 | Retained | Michelle Coleman | BK/FR | SWE |
| 10 | Retained | Finlay Knox | IM | CAN |
| 11 | Retained | Cole Pratt | BK | CAN |
| 12 | Retained | Yuri Kisil | FR | CAN |
| 13 | Retained | Alberto Razzetti | IM | ITA |
| 14 | Retained | Lisa Bratton | BK | USA |
| 15 | Retained | Anna Egorova | DFR | RUS |
| 16 | Retained (fan vote) | Jay Lelliott | DFR | GBR |
| 17 | R.04 | Kasia Wasick | FR | POL |
| 18 | 2.04 | Chelsea Hodges | BR | AUS |
| 19 | 3.04 | Max Litchfield | IM | GBR |
| 20 | 4.04 | Marius Kusch | FL/FR | GER |
| 21 | 5.04 | Luc Kroon | FR | NED |
| 22 | 6.04 | Fabian Schwingenschloegl | BR | GER |
| 23 | 7.04 | Grigori Pekarski | FL | BLR |
| 24 | 8.04 | Laura Stephens | FL | GBR |
| 25 | 10.04 | Brent Hayden | FR | CAN |
| 26 | 11.02 | Summer McIntosh | IM | CAN |
*Forfeited pick 9.04 for drafting Aimee Willmott (not registered)
New York Breakers
- GM: Martin Truijens
- Head Coach: Martin Truijens
Athletes:
| Round | Swimmer | Stroke | Country | |
| 1 | Retained | Abbie Wood | IM | GBR |
| 2 | Retained | Joe Litchfield | BK | GBR |
| 3 | Retained | Arina Surkova | FL/FR | RUS |
| 4 | Retained | Molly Renshaw | BR | GBR |
| 5 | Retained | Marco Koch | BR | GER |
| 6 | Retained | Felix Auboeck | DFR | AUT |
| 7 | Retained | Svetlana Chimrova | FL | RUS |
| 8 | Retained | Brendon Smith | IM/DFR | AUS |
| 9 | Retained | Lewis Clareburt | IM | NZL |
| 10 | Retained | Daria S. Ustinova | BK | RUS |
| 11 | Retained | Ajna Kesely | DFR | HUN |
| 12 | Retained | Sarah Vasey | BR | GBR |
| 13 | Retained | James Wilby | BR | GBR |
| 14 | Retained | Jacob Whittle | FR | GBR |
| 15 | Retained | Alicja Tchórz | BK | POL |
| 16 | Retained (fan vote) | Brandonn Almeida | IM | BRA |
| 17 | R.03 | Matt Temple | FL/FR | AUS |
| 18 | 2.03 | David Popovici | FR | ROU |
| 19 | 3.03 | Mewen Tomac | BK | FRA |
| 20 | 5.03 | Lucy Hope | FR | GBR |
| 21 | 6.03 | Jakub Majerski | FL | POL |
| 22 | 7.03 | Marrit Steenbergen | FR/IM | NED |
| 23 | 8.03 | Daryna Zevina | BK | UKR |
| 24 | 9.03 | Cornelia Fiedkiewicz | IM | POL |
| 25 | 11.01 | Philip Heintz | IM | GER |
*Forfeited pick 4.03 for drafting Maxime Grousset (not registered)
*Forfeited pick 10.03 for drafting Mehdy Metella (not registered)
DC Trident
- GM: Kaitlin Sandeno
- Head Coach: Cyndi Gallagher
Athletes:
| Round | Swimmer | Stroke | Country | |
| 1 | Retained | Zach Apple | FR | USA |
| 2 | Retained | Zach Harting | FL | USA |
| 3 | Retained | Jay Litherland | IM | USA |
| 4 | Retained | Linnea Mack | BK | USA |
| 5 | Retained | Ting Quah | FL | SGP |
| 6 | Retained | Brianna Throssell | FL | AUS |
| 7 | Retained | Leah Neale | FR | AUS |
| 8 | Retained | Annika Bruhn | FR | GER |
| 9 | Retained | Tristan Hollard | BK | AUS |
| 10 | Retained | Jacob Pebley | BK | USA |
| 11 | Retained | Bailey Andison | IM | CAN |
| 12 | Retained | Velimir Stjepanovic | FR | SRB |
| 13 | Retained | Tommy Cope | IM | USA |
| 14 | Retained | Zane Grothe | DFR | USA |
| 15 | Retained | Cody Miller | BR | USA |
| 16 | Retained (fan vote) | Mohamed Samy | BK | EGY |
| 17 | R.02 | Ryan Hoffer | FR/FL | USA |
| 18 | 1.02 | Anna Hopkin | FR | GBR |
| 19 | 2.02 | Maria Temnikova | BR | RUS |
| 20 | 3.02 | Andreas Vazaios | IM | GRE |
| 21 | 4.02 | Ali DeLoof | BK | USA |
| 22 | 5.02 | Zsuzsanna Jakabos | IM | HUN |
| 23 | 6.02 | Farida Osman | FL | EGY |
| 24 | 7.02 | Aleksandr Shchegolev | FR | RUS |
| 25 | 8.02 | Felipe Silva | BR | BRA |
| 26 | 9.02 | Tatiana Belonogoff | BR | RUS |
| 27 | 10.02 | Sergey Shevtsov | FL | UKR |
Aqua Centurions
- GM: Domenico Fioravanti
- Head Coach: Matteo Giunta
Athletes:
| Round | Swimmer | Stroke | Country | |
| 1 | Retained | Federica Pellegrini | FR | ITA |
| 2 | Retained | Martina Carraro | BR | ITA |
| 3 | Retained | Arianna Castiglioni | BR | ITA |
| 4 | Retained | Fabio Scozzoli | BR | ITA |
| 5 | Retained | Nicolo Martinenghi | BR | ITA |
| 6 | Retained | Szebasztian Szabo | FL/FR | HUN |
| 7 | Retained | Elena Di Liddo | FL | ITA |
| 8 | Retained | Silvia Di Pietro | FR | ITA |
| 9 | Retained | Alessandro Miressi | FR | ITA |
| 10 | Retained | Matteo Rivolta | FL | ITA |
| 11 | Retained | Marcelo Chierighini | FR | BRA |
| 12 | Retained | Leonardo De Deus | FL | BRA |
| 13 | Retained | Simone Sabbioni | BK | ITA |
| 14 | Retained | Vladislav Grinev | FR | RUS |
| 15 | Retained | Thomas Ceccon | FR/BK | ITA |
| 16 | Retained (fan vote) | Fabio Santi | BK | BRA |
| 17 | R.01 | Arno Kamminga | BR | NED |
| 18 | 1.01 | Maria Kameneva | BK/FR | RUS |
| 19 | 2.01 | Kathleen Dawson | BK | GBR |
| 20 | 3.01 | Chase Kalisz | IM | USA |
| 21 | 4.01 | Holly Hibbott | DFR | GBR |
| 22 | 5.01 | Fantine Lesaffre | IM | FRA |
| 23 | 6.01 | Holly Barratt | FR/BK | AUS |
| 24 | 7.01 | Radoslaw Kawecki | BK | POL |
| 25 | 8.01 | Rika Omoto | IM | JPN |
| 26 | 9.01 | Ilia Borodin | IM | RUS |
| 27 | 10.01 | Matteo Ciampi | DFR | ITA |
I’m waiting for the analysis of each team!
Where is TITMUS???
I reckon she’s avoiding overdoing it after her injury scare.
Looks like all the Boxall coached athletes are out: no Titmus, Larkin, Harkin, Harris …
Why theISL? Are not world championships, oly trials, Olympics, NCAAs, state meets enough?
No. Not at all. These are professional swimmers, a major competition every 2 years is nowhere near enough of high level competing
Looking forward to seeing who teams put in the individual freestyles. For example, Toronto will have a tough decision between Coleman/Sanchez/Wasick who are all very similar 50/100 specialists. But perhaps, they can save Sanchez for 200 free and 100/200 IM. Energy needs to decide between Haughey/Sjostrom/Heemskerk, but there’s is more clear. Haughey 100/200), SS (50/100), Heemskerk (50/200). Crazy to think some of these swimmers will miss an individual spot yet if they were with another team e.g., Breakers or DC they would be standouts.
Is Penny Oleksiak not swimming ISL this season? I expected to see her on the Toronto Titans roster.
Centurions have done a good rebuilding effort, but they are still missing some pieces of the puzzle.
They desperetely need a female 200 flyer, even if they intend to put Hibbott there. They might need someone other than Dawson for 200 back, as well.
These assuming everyone picked will swim the whole season, which isn’t certain.
Yeah I agree, but I honestly think they will make the final. The retaining system helped them keep their top males, and now they can focus on females who were the issue all along for them.
Murez is from Israel not from USA
She swims for Israel but grew up in California USA and swam for Venice high school. At the olympics she represents Israel.
Can someone tell me if these teams are balanced
You could try and determine that by simulating a meet but it’s really impossible to know until we see how the swimmers perform. Certain swimmers that were not valuable last season because they weren’t swimming well (James Guy, Katie McLaughlin) have the potential to be extremely valuable this year, swimmers that were good in 2019 but had an iffy past year (Mallory Comerford) could either be great assets or disappointments and swimmers that improved a lot in LCM like Kathleen Dawson could be game changers if they translate those improvements.
Morozov is another example of a guy primed for a big rebound