2019 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE FINALE
- Friday, December 20 – Saturday, December 21, 2019
- 1:00 – 3:00 PM Local Time (U.S. Pacific Time)
- Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino – Las Vegas, NV
- Short Course Meters (SCM) format
- Top 4 qualifying franchises: Energy Standard, London Roar, LA Current, Cali Condors
- Live Stream (ESPN3)
- Day 1 complete results
- Day 2 complete results (with final Las Vegas MVP standings)
In the women’s 50 free skins finale, racing head-to-head with long-time rival Cate Campbell, Sarah Sjostrom had a ton on the line. A win for her would keep Energy Standard in contention for the overall championship. On an individual level, a win for her would guarantee her the Season MVP title and the $50,000 bonus check that goes with it, in addition to the $18,000 reward for winning the skins race, and the $10,000 reward that each member of her Energy Standard team would receive when they eventually won the meet after the men’s skins event.
And Sjostrom came through huge when it counted most.
That ‘skins’ win locked up the overall ISL ‘Season MVP’ award, which makes her the first ever winner of that honor at the end of the league’s first season. She finished 3.5 points clear of Caeleb Dressel, who it’s clear on a micro-scale is the most valuable swimmer in this format, but who missed his team’s first meet, costing him this MVP title.
Showing how substantial not only the extra meet was, but the double points for the Grand Finale meet were, the top 16 performers in the Season MVP standings all raced in Las Vegas.
Sjostrom won a total of 12 races this season, including 3 of the triple-points skins events (though they were weighted at 50% for MVP purposes).
Top 10, Season MVP
| 1 | SJOSTROM Sarah | ENS | 243.5 | 55.5 | 52.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 44.0 | 92.0 |
| 2 | DRESSEL Caeleb | CAC | 240.0 | 0.0 | 57.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 61.5 | 0.0 | 121.0 |
| 3 | McKEON Emma | LON | 192.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 42.0 | 39.5 | 0.0 | 43.5 | 67.0 |
| 4 | le CLOS Chad | ENS | 190.5 | 43.0 | 44.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 44.0 | 59.0 |
| 5 | SMOLIGA Olivia | CAC | 174.5 | 44.0 | 44.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 29.5 | 0.0 | 57.0 |
| 6 | MANAUDOU Florent | ENS | 169.5 | 41.0 | 31.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 32.5 | 65.0 |
| 7 | CAMPBELL Cate | LON | 165.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 37.5 | 34.5 | 0.0 | 32.5 | 61.0 |
| 8 | KING Lilly | CAC | 157.5 | 31.5 | 31.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 31.5 | 0.0 | 63.0 |
| 9 | ATHERTON Minna | LON | 157.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 35.0 | 35.0 | 0.0 | 35.0 | 52.0 |
| 10 | GASTALDELLO Beryl | LAC | 156.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 20.0 | 31.5 | 51.5 | 0.0 | 53.0 |
Caeleb Dressel, while he ran out of room to catch Sjostrom for Season MVP honors, did win the final Match MVP award of the season, which was worth a double-points $10,000 prize of its own.
Las Vegas Grand Finale – MVP Standings
- Caeleb Dressel – 121
- Sarah Sjostrom – 92
- Emma McKeon – 67
- (TIE) Florent Manaudou/Duncan Scott – 65
- Lilly King – 63
- Cate Campbell – 61
- Chad le Clos – 59
- Olivia Smoliva – 57
- Nic Fink – 53
Swimmer of the decade.
Bruh Dressel just gave up 50k, if he went to that first meet he would of easily gotten mvp
50k will be nothing compared to what he will be making this summer.
Or what he already makes, for that matter.
A $50,000.00 bonus for a swimmer is massive. Any swimmer.
Called it that McKeon would be the highest points scorer to never get MVP. Sadly always a little overshadowed by more dominant swimmers despite generally being consistently excellent and a crucial asset for both London Roar and the Australian team for Worlds/Olympics.
Dressel has been absolutely stunning, and also has almost the most individual event wins in the entire ISL despite missing a meet (I believe the only one who has more is Lilly King).
Sjostrom has been a little off her career-best form but her sprint versatility means that she is a well-deserved season MVP nonetheless.
Perfectly executed plan by Sjostrom. If there is a mvp loophole with these skin races then why to not use it. She sacrificed her individual wins in stroke races for her main race of the meet. And it didn’t hurt team’s interest neither.
Um, I doubt Sjostrom purposefully lost her individual events, or even that she held back. She just doesn’t look like she’s in her best form. She did sacrifice relay participation on day 2, but the team is also deep enough that it was fine without her in those.
Of course she didn’t lose purposely. At the end each point costs $1000 but she definitely didn’t push herself to the limits in those races.
Bro do you try to piss people off with your comments sheesh