Siobhan Haughey Leads All Swimmers With Almost $25k in Match 3 Earnings

Thanks to Barry Revzin for compiling this data.

Siobhan Haughey of Energy Standard led all swimmers with $24,750 in earnings in Match 3 of the 2021 ISL season.

Haughey won her second career MVP honor and the $8,000 bonus that goes with it. She also won the MVP award in Match 6 last season.

This season, only the MVP winner at each meet receives money. In 2020, the top 3 finishers in the MVP rankings all did.

Match 3 Final Team Standings:

1. Energy Standard – 640.5
2. London Roar – 436.5
3. Iron – 405.5
4. New York Breakers – 278.5

That’s a tough break for her teammate Sarah Sjostrom, who actually had more earnings than Haughey (by a lot) before the MVP bonus was awarded, thanks to her win in the skins final. In total, Sjostrom won $10,200 in the skins race, while Haughey won $4,400. The two actually tied and had to share jackpot points and money in the first round before Sjostrom went on to win the last two rounds.

Sjostrom still leads the overall season money thanks to a $24,150 output in the team’s opening match. Haughey, meanwhile, earned almost twice in much as Match 3 as she did in Match 1 ($24,750 vs. $12,400). Coleman Stewart still has the highest single-match output this season with $26,775 thanks to a full-field jackpot in the 100 backstroke in Match 2.

Haughey’s MVP award came on the strength of her versatility: after placing 2nd behind Sjostrom in the 50 free (23.80), she won the 400 free (4:02.59), 100 free (51.64), and 200 free (1:52.82) in that order.

Sjostrom, meanwhile, swam one fewer individual event, racing only the 50 free, 100 free, and 50 fly. As she’s still working back from multiple injuries over the last 12 months, Energy Standard’s depth in the women’s 100 fly affords them the opportunity to give Sjostrom a lesser load in that event.

The top male earner was Vini Lanza of London Roar with $11,500, again thanks to a big skins performance that included winning the final round, followed by his teammate Duncan Scott with $10,800.

Iron’s top earner was Nicholas Santos, thanks to a win in the 50 fly skins race, with $9,500, while Abbey Wood led the New York Breakers for the 2nd straight meet with $7,400 – even without participating in the skins race or earning any relay money.

Stolen prize money continues to not be much of a factor, even with the extension of small prizes to 5th and 6th place finishers. The ISL’s new structure only allows half of an athlete’s prize money to be stolen. At Match 3, that meant $3,850 was stolen out of a grand total of $320,800 awarded – just over 1%.

ISL Match 3 Prize Money – By Team

An ongoing narrative in the ISL surrounds the earnings gaps between the top and the bottom teams: as it relates to parity, participation decisions, and offseason recruitment motivation, there is a huge gap between the top teams (like Energy Standard) and the bottom teams (like New York Breakers). In Match 3, Energy Standard athletes earned roughly four-times as much as New York Breakers athletes did.

• Examining the Wealth Gap in the ISL.

ISL Match 3 Prize Money – By Swimmer