The Toronto Titans of the International Swimming League (ISL) have signed World Record holder Anton Chupkov for the 2020 season.
Few details have leaked out about season 2 of the league so far, though, with ongoing coronavirus concerns, the league has announced plans to condense into a short 5-or-6 week camp, in a single location, where athletes will arrive with their coaches and remain for the entirety of the ‘season.’
According to Wikipedia edits made by the Toronto Titans’ Director of Marketing Jayne Bintley, the team has signed 30 swimmers so far for the 2020 season. Of those, 16 are women and 14 are men. Last season, teams were able to sign 16 women and 16 men to their rosters, with 14 active for each meet.
Bintley also lists Byran MacDonald, the head coach of the University of Toronto varsity squad, as the Titans’ head coach.
With no league details formally announced, this roster is considered ‘tentative,’ as several signed athletes have told SwimSwam that they have also not been given many details about the upcoming season, including a confirmed location for the camp. Those details could impact the decisions of some swimmers.
The Titans are in their first year as members of the International Swimming League.
In addition to a handful of Canadian swimmers, the team also has a significant Russian contingent. That group is led by Chupkov, who is the two-time defending World Champion in the 200 breaststroke and who last summer broke the World Record in that event by half-a-second.
Last season, Chupkov swam for the league champion Energy Standard team, where he finished 78th in league-wide scoring after missing one of his team’s four meets. His lowest output came at the season finale in Las Vegas, where even with double scoring in effect, he earned only 16 points. At that meet, he placed 8th in the 50 breaststroke, 7th in the 100 breaststroke, and 5th in his specialty the 200 breaststroke.
When he was at his best in the league debut in Indianapolis, however, he won the 200 breaststroke for Energy Standard.
Also included in the roster from Russia are the Russian team captain Anastasia Fesikova and her husband Sergey Fesikov, both of whom are former individual World Record holders, having set marks in 2009 in the now-banned polyurethane suits. Aleksandr Krasnykh and Anna Egorova also join the team from Russia.
There are also a few suprise names and league debutants on the roster. That includes Sweden’s Louise Hansson, who just finished her career as the fastest 100 yard butterflier in history at USC, and recent Auburn graduate Claire Fisch. Canadian Brent Hayden, who hit an Olympic qualifying time shortly into a return after nearly a decade away from the sport last season, will also join the roster.
Prior to the announcement of a shift in league plans due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the Titans formally announced Blake Pieroni, Anton McKee, Kayla Sanchez, Michael Chadwick, and Kylie Masse as team members via their Instagram channel.
Breakdown of Swimmers by Roster
- Canada – 12
- Russia – 5
- United States – 5
- UK – 1
- Czech Republic – 1
- Luxembourg – 1
- Sweden – 1
- Iceland – 1
- Ukraine – 1
- Ireland – 1
- Italy – 1
2020 Toronto Titans ISL Roster
*Tentative Roster
Any idea when the rest of the other teams will be announced?
They’re all saying June. But, these kind of deadlines have been missed before.
DC Trident have a partial roster on Wikipedia as well, though not as complete as the Titans’, and Energy Standard of course began announcing before the pandemic.
Can you please post the link for the Trident Wikipedia page as I cannot find it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Trident
I’ve linked all the pages that I can find on the ISL page now:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Swimming_League#Teams
Only London Roar, Aqua Centurions and Tokyo are missing.
I wonder if they’ll make Brent Hayden wear a cap.
Serious question. Do caps stay on if you’re bald?
Unless you baby-oil your dome, they do
As someone who has been wearing a cap for open water swimming while the pools have been closed, I can confirm they do stay on the head. But that doesn’t mean I’ll wear one for racing.
Toronto Titans tattoo?
I believe Kayla Sanchez also signed up to be on the Toronto Titans team.
Good catch, she’s been added above.
ISL teams all updating their own Wikipedia pages? Isn’t that against wiki rules?
Everything this league does is shady. They call themselves the revolution to FINA, but to me they just smell like the same old beauracrats with new branding.
Firstly, what do you mean it’s against wiki rules? As long as you have proper information/citations, it’s totally fine.
Explain your second point as well. So far this seems like a great league that actually gives these hard-working athletes the chance to shine and actually make a living for once. Regardless of their true motivations, you can’t argue this doesn’t benefit everyone involved.
I’m not an ISL fanboy or anything, but I really appreciate everything they’ve done and the exciting competitions they run. And no matter how you spin it, they’ve been a heck of a lot more supportive to these athletes than FINA ever has.
Re your last sentence:
I hope people understand there are thousands of swimmers in the world, instead of just a few top ones. FINA has many more obligations than just giving top athletes the financial benefits they want, such as supporting swimmers from the third world , who could never reach the level where they can make a living by swimming and just stick to swimming in inferior environments because of their dreams. An international organization like Fina is responsible for giving them a chance to train and compete as well.
I’m not saying FINA did a good job in the PR of swimming, but it has to be clear that ISL is not yet a potential substitute for… Read more »
Well said! Not a fan of both! 😛
ISL paid athletes less in 2019 than FINA did, for a much bigger time commitment. So. I’m not a big FINA fanboy either but it’s weird that people think ISL is actually paying most swimmers a decent wage.
As far as wikipedia, clearly you’re not a part of the community, or you’d better understand the rules: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Conflict_of_interest
Just a thought but the FINA champions series prize money would not have been awarded if the ISL didn’t exist so I give the ISL credit for that prize money also
But if they didnt who would?