The London Roar of the International Swimming League (ISL) have announced 5 coaches and 6 captains for the inaugural 2019 season of the league. The 5-member coaching team (with out an appointed ‘head coach’) is significantly bigger than those we’ve seen announced by the American teams, which have thus far put forward 2-or-3 member staffs.
- Cali Condors – head coach Gregg Troy, assistants Dean Boxall and Jeff Julian
- LA Current – head coach David Marsh, assistants Brett Hawke, Jack Roach
- DC Trident – head coach Cyndi Gallagher, assistants Rachel Stratton-Mills and Stefanie Moreno
- New York Breakers – head coach Peter Andrew, assistant Wayne Riddin.
Balazs Virth, Fred Vergnoux, Peter Bishop, Melanie Marshall, and David Lush are the ‘coaching team’ for the London Roar. Each has current athletes who are members of the team:
- Balazs Virth – coach to London Roar team member Boglarka Kapas. Virth has also coached Olympic champions Daniel Gyurta and Eva Risztov, among many other internationals.
- Fred Vergnoux – coach to 28-year old Mireia Belmonte, an Olympic gold medalist. Vergnoux is currently is based at the National Training Centre in Barcelona where he is National Head Coach. He is also a former head coach of the British Olympic Team.
- Peter Bishop – head coach of the South Australian Sports Institute and coach of Olympic Champion Kyle Chalmers. Also coached Hayden Stoeckel to Olympic medals and Matthew Cowdrey to legendary status with 23 Paralympic medals, including 13 golds.
- Melanie Marshall – coach to Olympic and World breaststroke champion Adam Peaty along with his London Roar team mate Sarah Vasey. Marshall has been awarded British Swim Coaches Association Coach of the Year 4 years running and currently coaches at Loughborough.
- David Lush – former coach to Olympic medallist Emily Seebohm, who recently moved to train with Michael Bohl. Lush is also the coach of current London Roar swimmer Minna Atherton.
The team has also named 6 swimmers as co-captains, with different athletes picking up the torch for different meets. Having a roster loaded with Olympic champions, it made sense for the team to spread out its captaincies for different events, but the Roar are also expected to be hit hard when the British team goes to a training camp in Arizona, making the rotating captaincy a necessity as well.
- Dallas: Sydney Pickrem & Kyle Chalmers
- Budapest: Mireia Belmonte & Adam Peaty
- London: Cate Campbell & James Guy
The Roar are scheduled to compete in Lewisville, Texas on October 19th & 20th; Budapest, Hungary on October 26th & 27th, and London on November 23rd & 24th. See the full 2019 schedule here.
Full London Roar for the 2019 ISL Season:
| Men | Women |
| Kyle Chalmers | Minna Atherton |
| Alex Graham | Holly Barratt |
| James Guy | Mireia Belmonte |
| Yuri Kisil | Bronte Campbell |
| Finlay Knox | Cate Campbell |
| Vini Lanza | Jess Hansen |
| Cameron McEvoy | Holly Hibbott |
| Adam Peaty | Boglarka Kapas |
| Kirill Prigoda | Emma McKeon |
| Duncan Scott | Taylor McKeown |
| Elijah Winnington |
Siobhan-Marie O’Connor
|
| Matthew Wilson | Jeanette Ottesen |
| Christian Diener | Sydney Pickrem |
| Sarah Vasey | |
| Marie Wattel |
is Prince Chalmers ready to roar, or is he still out of the water?
David Lush is also coach of London Roar member Minna Atherton
Do they have a male backstroker? London’s male medley has some real potential.
Christian Diener looks like the only one
Finlay Knox is a well rounded IMer. He is only 18 and swam a 52.7 SCM at Ontario Jr International last December while he was still 17. He just moved from his club coach to HPCO. He might get put in that role…
If you don’t know much about Fred – he’s a great and insightful coach. Really enjoyed having him on the Swim Coaches Base Podcast – https://rittersp.com/podcast/athlete-first-swimmer-second-fred-vergnoux
Any idea why a team would need so many coaches? It just seems like these teams will spend so little time together that any actual coaching is likely to be minimal.
Wel it’s a networking opportunity as well.. get to learn new tricks of the trade from each other
They will have a kick ass mixed relay though with Duncan Scott and Kyle chalmers and Campbell sisters onboard