ISL All-Time Best Swims For Season One (Men’s Events)

ISL Season One

We’ve compiled a list of the Top 10 swims in each event from what was the inaugural year of the International Swimming League. The league doesn’t seem to be keeping records, so we’ve done it for you instead. These records will be a great reference point ahead of the second season later this year.

Although there are still many details yet to be confirmed, some changes for season 2 have already been announced. One such change is the introduction of ‘Jackpot Times’, which is essentially a point-stealing rule. You can read more about the specifics of the rule here.

In theory, this will put more of an emphasis on times this season. Athletes look to gain extra points (a lot in some cases) by beating their competitors by as big a margin as possible. Swims like Daiya Seto‘s World Record in the 400IM (where he beat his competition by 5 seconds), or Katie Ledecky‘s 400 free which was just 0.14 off the WR, would have been rewarded considerable extra points if this rule had been in play last season.

A 5-week training camp and competition is the revised plan for ISL Season 2, and is reportedly taking place in Budapest, Hungary. Announcements of rosters are expected in early-September. You can read more about the plans here.

Day 1 Events

Day 2 Events

• Caeleb Dressel, who walked away as the ISL’s second biggest earner in season 1 (behind Sarah Sjostrom), shaved 0.02 off the 50m freestyle WR at the Finale is Las Vegas (20.24). The previous record (20.26) was owned by Florent Manaudou which he set during the 2014 World Championships. Dressel holds another WR in the long-course 100m butterfly (49.50), and also set 2 American Records in the 100m free (45.22) and 50m fly (22.06) during the first ISL season. In total he has 5 American Records and 2 World Records.
• In his ISL debut, which came in the Las Vegas finale, Daiya Seto delivered a stellar performance in the 400IM as he smashed Ryan Lochte’s 9-year-old World Record in the 400IM. His swim was one of the standout performances of the entire season, as he beat the rest of the field by a whole 5 seconds, touching in 3:54.81. The previous mark stood at 3:55.50.
• Duncan Scott took down a number of Scottish and British records throughout last year’s short course season. At the league’s Finale is Las Vegas, he became the first British swimmer in history to go sub-4 mins in the 400IM (3:59.81), touching second behind Seto who broke the World Record in that race.
• Nic Fink and Ian Finnerty set new American record marks in both the 50m and 100m breaststroke, respectively. Fink’s time of 25.75 sits at #2 in the Top 10 rankings for that event, knocking out the previous mark of 25.99 which was set by Ian Finnerty at the College Park match the month before.
• Finnerty, who has recently been training with the Energy Standard training group in Antalya, Turkey, set a new mark of 56.29 in the 100m breaststroke during the Marlyand match. He walked away from that event as the top male point scorer; plus it’s also worth noting that he became the first American man to ever go sub-26 in the 50m brs with his original record time of 25.99.