Sarah Sjostrom Finishes FINA Champions Series With $148,000 in 6 Days of Racing

FINA CHAMPIONS SWIM SERIES 2019 #3 – INDIANAPOLIS

Even without swimming any relay events in Indianapolis, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom came away with the money-winning top prize, just inching out Michael Andrew, who needed anything-but-4th in the final relay, the mixed medley, to surpass the Swede.

Sjostrom’s $44,000 on 5 individual swims this weekend capped off a whopping $148,000 series for Sjostrom. In total, she won 12 individual events across 3 stops and was runner-up on 2 other occasions.

Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu finished 2nd with $123,000, though it took her more swims (15 individually) to get there. Michael Andrew was 3rd with $103,500 on 14 swims, as the trio clearly separated themselves from the pack in the overall earnings. Saturday also gave Andrew his first individual win of the meet, a gold in the 100 fly.

In her first appearance of the season, breaststroker Lilly King came away with the most gold medals, 4, of any swimmer, including the punctuating 100 breaststroke and 400 medley relay titles on Saturday. That was good for $34,500 in her biggest prize-money payday so far as a pro.

For sake of comparing, the top earner at the 2018 FINA World Cup Series was Vlad Morozov, who captured $332,000, albeit across a 7 meet series. That comes out to just over $47,000 per stop, which is fairly close to the $49,000+ that Sjostrom made per-meet at the Champions Series.

The biggest difference in prize money distribution came in the secondary tier of athletes. For example, only 19 swimmers (10 men, 9 women) earned more than $10,000 at the FINA World Cup Series. Even with just 3 meets, 83 swimmers earned at least $10,000. That is where, like the ISL intends to do, this series has helped close the gap – swimmers like Vlad Morozov, Sarah Sjostrom, and Katinka Hosszu are going to ‘get theirs’ no matter the format. For swimmers like Arno Kamminga and Gabriele Detti and Imogen Clark and Hali Flickinger, that amount of money, with a relatively-small commitment to competition, can make the difference in being better-able to support their Olympic dreams deep into their 20s and 30s.

The Americans came away with the biggest prize haul in the series, earning $621,000 as a group, followed by the Russians ($313,000) and the Chinese ($303,000), the latter of whom did most of their damage in the home meet in Guangzhao. Hungary earned $204,000 thanks to a lot of “fill in” opportunities at the Budapest-hosted meet, while Sjostrom by herself ranked 5th among national money overall in the series.

Final Prize Money – Indianapolis Stop

1st 2nd 3rd 4th Individual Prize Money Relay prize money
Total Prize Money
Sarah Sjostrom Sweden 3 1 1 0 $44,000 $44,000
Michael Andrew USA 1 3 0 1 $39,000 $4,500 $43,500
Katinka Hosszu Hungary 1 2 0 2 $36,000 $36,000
Lilly King USA 3 0 0 0 $30,000 $4,500 $34,500
Ranomi Kromowidjojo Netherlands 0 0 4 0 $24,000 $8,000 $32,000
Kylie Masse Canada 2 0 1 0 $25,000 $6,000 $31,000
Ryan Murphy USA 1 2 0 0 $26,000 $3,000 $29,000
Yulia Efimova Russia 0 3 0 0 $24,000 $3,500 $27,500
Kelsi Dahlia USA 0 1 1 1 $19,000 $6,000 $25,000
Matt Grevers USA 1 1 1 0 $24,000 $24,000
Jacob Pebley USA 1 0 1 0 $16,000 $8,000 $24,000
Vlad Morozov Russia 1 1 0 1 $23,000 $500 $23,500
Danas Rapsys Lithuania 1 1 0 1 $23,000 $23,000
Leah Smith USA 1 1 0 1 $23,000 $23,000
Hali Flickinger USA 1 0 1 1 $21,000 $2,000 $23,000
Townley Haas USA 0 1 1 1 $19,000 $3,000 $22,000
Penny Oleksiak Canada 1 0 1 1 $21,000 $21,000
Anastasia Fesikova Russia 1 0 1 1 $20,000 $20,000
Chase Kalisz USA 2 0 0 0 $20,000 $20,000
Melanie Margalis USA 0 1 1 1 $19,000 $19,000
Farida Osman Egypt 0 1 0 2 $18,000 $18,000
Margherita Panziera Italy 1 1 0 0 $18,000 $18,000
Pernille Blume Denmark 1 1 0 0 $18,000 $18,000
Anton Chupkov Russia 1 0 1 0 $16,000 $16,000
Gabriele Detti Italy 1 0 1 0 $16,000 $16,000
Arno Kamminga Netherlands 0 1 1 0 $14,000 $2,000 $16,000
Nicholas Santos Brazil 1 0 0 0 $10,000 $6,000 $16,000
Pieter Timmers Belgium 1 0 0 1 $15,000 $15,000
Andrii Govorov Ukraine 0 0 1 1 $11,000 $2,000 $13,000
Jack Conger USA 0 0 1 1 $11,000 $2,000 $13,000
Molly Hannis USA 0 0 2 0 $12,000 $12,000
Cody Miller USA 1 0 0 0 $10,000 $2,000 $12,000
Josh Prenot USA 0 0 1 1 $11,000 $500 $11,500
Zach Harting USA 0 0 1 1 $11,000 $500 $11,500
Bruno Fratus Brazil 0 0 1 1 $11,000 $11,000
Micah Sumrall USA 0 0 1 1 $11,000 $11,000
Robert Glinta Romania 0 0 1 1 $11,000 $11,000
Bethany Galat USA 0 0 0 2 $10,000 $10,000
Joao Gomes Junior Brazil 1 0 0 0 $10,000 $10,000
Piero Codia Italy 0 1 0 0 $8,000 $2,000 $10,000
Dmitriy Balandin Kazakhstan 0 1 0 0 $8,000 $8,000
Felipe Lima Brazil 0 1 0 0 $8,000 $8,000
Justin Wright USA 0 1 0 0 $8,000 $8,000
Sydney Pickrem Canada 0 1 0 0 $8,000 $8,000
Etiene Medeiros Brazil 0 0 0 1 $5,000 $3,000 $8,000
Fabio Scozzoli Italy 0 0 1 0 $6,000 $6,000
Mykhailo Romanchuk Ukraine 0 0 1 0 $6,000 $6,000
Anthony Ervin USA 0 0 0 1 $5,000 $5,000
Kevin Cordes USA 0 0 0 1 $5,000 $5,000
Oleg Kostin Russia 0 0 0 1 $5,000 $5,000

Prize Money By Country – Indianapolis

Country
Prize Money Total – Indianapolis
USA $386,000
Russia $92,000
Canada $60,000
Brazil $53,000
Italy $50,000
Netherlands $48,000
Sweden $44,000
Hungary $36,000
Lithuania $23,000
Ukraine $19,000
Egypt $18,000
Denmark $18,000
Belgium $15,000
Romania $11,000

Prize Money Table – Overall

Name Country
Total Money (After Indy Day 2)
Sarah Sjostrom Sweden $148,000
Katinka Hosszu Hungary $123,000
Michael Andrew USA $103,500
Danas Rapsys Lithuania $61,000
Vlad Morozov Russia $60,500
Yulia Efimova Russia $59,500
Ranomi Kromowidjojo Netherlands $57,000
Kelsi Dahlia USA $53,000
Anton Chupkov Russia $52,000
Molly Hannis USA $52,000
Pernille Blume Denmark $51,000
Chad le Clos South Africa $48,000
Matt Grevers USA $43,000
Anastasia Fesikova Russia $42,000
Penny Oleksiak Canada $42,000
Farida Osman Egypt $39,000
Kliment Kolesnikov Russia $39,000
Nicholas Santos Brazil $39,000
Pieter Timmers Belgium $39,000
Ben Proud Great Britain $38,000
Emily Seebohm Australia $37,000
Jacob Pebley USA $35,000
Lilly King USA $34,500
Li Bingjie China $34,000
Georgia Davies Great Britain $31,000
Kylie Masse Canada $31,000
Robert Glinta Romania $31,000
Xu Jiayu China $31,000
Fabio Scozzoli Italy $30,000
Ryan Murphy USA $29,000
Chase Kalisz USA $28,000
Margherita Panziera Italy $28,000
Andrii Govorov Ukraine $27,000
Cate Campbell Australia $26,000
Imogen Clark Great Britain $26,000
Ye Shiwen China $25,000
Gabriele Detti Italy $24,000
Etiene Medeiros Brazil $23,000
Hali Flickinger USA $23,000
Katie Meili USA $23,000
Leah Smith USA $23,000
Arno Kamminga Netherlands $22,000
Joao Gomes Junior Brazil $22,000
Townley Haas USA $22,000
Wang Jianjiahe China $21,000
Wang Shun China $21,000
Evgeny Rylov Russia $20,000
Fu Yuanhui China $20,000
Sun Yang China $20,000
Bruno Fratus Brazil $19,000
Melanie Margalis USA $19,000
Felipe Lima Brazil $18,000
Kristof Milak Hungary $18,000
Masato Sakai Japan $18,000
Josh Prenot USA $16,500
Laszlo Cseh Hungary $16,000
Qin Haiyang China $16,000
Ryosuke Irie Japan $16,000
Andrei Minakov Russia $15,000
Anthony Ervin USA $15,000
Dmitriy Balandin Kazakhstan $15,000
Piero Codia Italy $15,000
Siobhan O’Connor Great Britain $15,000
Aleksandr Krasnykh Russia $14,000
Federica Pellegrini Italy $14,000
Ippei Watanabe Japan $14,000
Jeremy Desplanches Switzerland $14,000
Justin Ress USA $14,000
Li Zhuhao China $14,000
Yu Jingyao China $14,000
Jack Conger USA $13,000
Mykhailo Romanchuk Ukraine $13,000
Ajna Kesely Hungary $12,000
Cody Miller USA $12,000
Dana Vollmer USA $12,000
Zach Harting USA $11,500
Holly Hibbott Great Britain $11,000
Micah Sumrall USA $11,000
Zhang Yuhan China $11,000
Bethany Galat USA $10,000
Kevin Cordes USA $10,000
Mehdy Metella France $10,000
Yufei Zhang China $10,000
Philip Heintz Germany $9,000
Eszter Bekesi Hungary $8,000
Franziska Hentke Germany $8,000
Justin Wright USA $8,000
Kim Seoyeong Korea $8,000
Liu Xiang China $8,000
Peng Xuwei China $8,000
Seoyeong Kim South Korea $8,000
Boglarka Kapas Hungary $6,000
Dominik Kosma Hungary $6,000
Feng Junyang China $6,000
He Yun China $6,000
Jack McLoughlin Australia $6,000
Li Guanguan China $6,000
Liu Yaxin China $6,000
Ross Murdoch Great Britain $6,000
Veronika Andrusenko Russia $6,000
Wang Yizhe China $6,000
Zhou Min China $6,000
Alys Margaret Thomas Great Britain $5,000
Katalin Burian Hungary $5,000
Oleg Kostin Russia $5,000
Peter Bernek Hungary $5,000
Wang Zhou China $5,000
Zhang Sishi China $5,000
Zsuzsanna Jakabos Hungary $5,000
He Junyi China $4,000
Sydney Pickrem Canada $2,000

Prize Money By Country – Overall

Country
USA $621,000
Russia $313,000
China $303,000
Hungary $204,000
Sweden $148,000
Great Britain $132,000
Brazil $121,000
Italy $111,000
Netherlands $79,000
Canada $75,000
Australia $69,000
Lithuania $61,000
Denmark $51,000
South Africa $48,000
Japan $48,000
Ukraine $40,000
Egypt $39,000
Belgium $39,000
Romania $31,000
Germany $17,000
Kazakhstan $15,000
Switzerland $14,000
France $10,000
Korea $8,000
South Korea $8,000

In This Story

16
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

16 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Joe
5 years ago

Sarah has earned an extremely nice payday since the last Olympics. Now I believe it’s time to ditch the quantity(by her standards) and go for quality heading into Tokyo.

Ol' Longhorn
5 years ago

Sure hope the Andrews have some sort of Lloyd’s of London policy on MA to pay out when the inevitable surfing injury occurs.

Boknows34
5 years ago

Two wins and a third for Kylie Masse should count as $26,000 individually, not $25k. The extra $1,000 leaves her with $32,000 for the Indy stop and Canada at $61,000 overall (Masse 32k, Oleksiak 21k and Pickrem 8k)

Boknows34
Reply to  Braden Keith
5 years ago

Thanks Braden. That explains it.

Yozhik
5 years ago

There is something to think about distribution of prize money by countries. If it is the result of FINA’s invitation procedure then there is an obvious bias. Even if to assume that some swimmers haven’t accepted the invitation then anyway the second round of invitations looks suspicious. Ideally I would expect the money distribution by countries for the tournaments of this type to match the distribution of best 50(that is approximately the number of FINA “A” qualified) swimmers by countries. If it doesn’t happen then it will mean to me that the invitation procedure is just another way of corruption.

spectatorn
5 years ago

Just happened to notice because she is listed at the very end of the overall earning list. Sydney Pickrem earned $8000 at Indianapolis so her over earning should be at least $8000, not $2000.

Yozhik
5 years ago

How come the great performance of Lilly King who swept all three breaststroke events in champion style earned less money than not that impressive or even sometimes embarrassing (400FR, 100BK) performances of Katinka Hosszu?

ArtVanDeLegh10
Reply to  Yozhik
5 years ago

Katinka has world class times in the 400 Fr and 1
Back. Lily only has world class times in the breast stroke events.

Yozhik
Reply to  ArtVanDeLegh10
5 years ago

Lifetime achievement award. Makes sense.

Ol' Longhorn
Reply to  Yozhik
5 years ago

Just get over it. Katinka is making more money than you. It happens. Move on.

Yozhik
5 years ago

Sarah costs more.

Swimming4silver
5 years ago

So how much of Michael Andrew 103,000 is going to be taxed?

Superfan
Reply to  Swimming4silver
5 years ago

All the prize money goes through USA swimming, they take the tax out and rest goes to Michael! All above board

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

Read More »