The event lineup for the second season of the International Swimming League (ISL) will closely resemble what we saw in Season 1, but with a few notable changes. On top of that, there are a couple of new wrinkles added to the skins format, and “jackpot times” that could drastically shift the momentum of matches.
The major change to the event schedule is the addition of the 100 individual medley, which will have a men’s and women’s event after the skins, which closed each match last year.
The only other change to the order of events is the movement of the women’s 100 freestyle to the conclusion of Day 1, having previously opened the action on Day 2. That spot now belongs to the men’s 100 free.
SEASON 2 EVENT SCHEDULE
| Day 1 | Day 2 |
| Women’s 100 Butterfly | Men’s 100 Freestyle |
| Men’s 100 Butterfly | Women’s 100 Breaststroke |
| Women’s 50 Breaststroke | Men’s 100 Breaststroke |
| Men’s 50 Breaststroke | Women’s 400 Freestyle |
| Women’s 400 IM | Men’s 400 Freestyle |
| Men’s 400 IM | Women’s 4×100 Medley Relay |
| Women’s 4×100 Free Relay | Men’s 200 IM |
| Men’s 4×100 Free Relay | Women’s 200 IM |
| Women’s 200 Backstroke | Men’s 50 Butterfly |
| Men’s 200 Backstroke | Women’s 50 Butterfly |
| Women’s 50 Freestyle | Men’s 100 Backstroke |
| Men’s 50 Freestyle | Women’s 100 Backstroke |
| Men’s 4×100 Medley Relay | Mixed 4×100 Free Relay |
| Men’s 200 Freestyle | Women’s 200 Butterfly |
| Women’s 200 Freestyle | Men’s 200 Butterfly |
| Men’s 50 Backstroke | Women’s Skins |
| Women’s 50 Backstroke | Men’s Skins |
| Men’s 200 Breaststroke | Men’s 100 IM |
| Women’s 200 Breaststroke | Women’s 100 IM |
| Women’s 100 Freestyle |
SKINS CHANGES: COULD BE ANY STROKE
Unlike last season, the skins races won’t only be freestyle.
Among the new rules this year is that the winning teams for both men and women in the 4×100 medley relay will get to select the stroke of their respective skins race. So, for example, if the London Roar win the women’s 4×100 medley relay, the team gets to pick the stroke of the women’s skins event, and the same goes for the winning men’s team.
On top of that, the skins scoring has changed.
Last season it didn’t matter what place you finished in each round, as long as you were within the top-4 (first round) and top-2 (second round) in order to advance. In other words, placing fourth in the opening round was the same as placing first. That won’t be the case this year.
The winner of each round will receive nine points, second place seven points, etc, just like in an individual event. The winner of the final round will receive 14 points. Last year, the overall winner earned 27 points for his or her team. This year a swimmer is capable of earning 32 points if they win all three rounds wire-to-wire.
SKINS ROUND-BY-ROUND SCORING
| 8th | 7th | 6th | 5th | 4th | 3rd | 2nd | 1st | |
| Round 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 9 |
| Round 2 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 9 | ||||
| Round 3 | 7 | 14 |
Last season, the skins scoring was as follows:
- 1st: 27 points
- 2nd: 21 points
- 3rd: 12
- 4th: 10
- 5th: 4
- 6th: 3
- 7th: 2
- 8th: 1
JACKPOT TIMES: A NEW TWIST
Another new addition to the scoring format is the implementation of jackpot times.
Essentially, each event has a “jackpot time” that signifies the margin of victory the winner has over the other swimmers in his or her heat. If the winner of the event beats the second-place swimmer by more than the jackpot time, then they steal all the event’s points, which would be 37 individually, 74 points in a relay and 85 in the skins.
JACKPOT TIMES
| Event | Men | Women |
| 50 Free | 0.65 | 0.7 |
| 100 Free | 1.35 | 1.55 |
| 200 Free | 3 | 3.4 |
| 400 Free | 6.4 | 7.1 |
| 50 Back | 0.7 | 0.8 |
| 100 Back | 1.5 | 1.65 |
| 200 Back | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| 50 Breast | 0.8 | 0.9 |
| 100 Breast | 1.7 | 1.9 |
| 200 Breast | 3.6 | 4.1 |
| 50 Fly | 0.7 | 0.8 |
| 100 Fly | 1.5 | 1.65 |
| 200 Fly | 3.3 | 3.6 |
| 100 IM | 1.55 | 1.7 |
| 200 IM | 3.3 | 3.7 |
| 400 IM | 7.1 | 7.8 |
| 4×100 Free | 9 | 10 |
| 4×100 Medley | 10 | 11 |
| Mixed 4×100 Free | 10 |
For an example, say that the winner of the men’s 100 freestyle clocks 45.15. If the runner-up goes 46.52, which is more than the jackpot time (1.35 seconds) behind, the victor steals all of the event’s points.
If the women’s 200 back winner swims 2:00.91, second-place goes 2:01.71, third is 2:02.68 and fourth is 2:04.54, because the fourth-place swimmer was more than the jackpot time (3.60 seconds) behind the winner, the points for fourth through eighth go to the swimmer who touched first.
I’m so there for the 100IM.
I like all of this except the Jackpot times. I think making skins worth slightly more points is actually okay when done in tandem with rotating strokes, since it is very difficult for any one swimmer to reliably get those points. (but not impossible for a truly special swimmer to win skins across diff strokes). I could see a few swimmers capable of winning different strokes, but no swimmer capable of winning all 4.
So they’ve gotten rid of the benchmark times? They’ve been replaced with jackpot times to discourage slow swims?
I agree with you Troyy about the strong swimmers just getting more points than ever now. I don’t get it at all. What about the younger newer swimmers who are slightly slower? How are they going to feel if they lose points for their team because Seto was in their race for example? The benchmark times seemed fairer.
Correct.
Dressel and Seto are going to clean up on jackpot times.
Please add 4 x 50 relays and the 800.
I AM BETTING. First time we see a sub 50 100 im. I am placing my bet.
Too gimmicky. I wish they spent more time on structure to make the teams competitive. I don’t think top swimmers phoning it in was too much of a problem last year. When a team race swings 50 points on a single skins event, I hope they’ll reconsider.
I sort of agree. If top swimmers were phoning it in…it was certainly never something where I sat there and said “oh she phoned that in.” It never crossed my mind.
I don’t like the jackpot time system tbh, I thought a good thing about the ISL was to give swimmers are necessarily top 2/6 in their nation a chance to compete and do the sport professionally, but the jackpot system I feel kinda takes the swimmers who grab up points not in places 4-8 out of the running for being useful members of the team