2021 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE – SEASON 3, MATCH 18 – LEAGUE FINAL
- Friday, December 3rd – Saturday, December 4th
- 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm local time; 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST
- Pieter van den Hoogenband Zwemstadion, Eindhoven, Netherlands
- Short Course Meters (25m – SCM) Format
- ISL Season 3 Schedules, Start Times, & More
- ISL Live Stream ($)
- Live Results
- Teams Competing: Energy Standard, Cali Condors, London Roar, LA Current
Energy Standard reclaimed its International Swimming League title with a narrow win in the league’s Season 3 final on Saturday, besting the defending champion Cali Condors.
The clubs traded the lead back and forth during the final day of competition, but Energy Standard clinched the title thanks to the efforts of Ben Proud and Adam Barrett in the men’s butterfly skins.
The match was exciting from the get-go, as Kelsi Dahlia raced to a world record in the women’s 100 fly to open Day 1.
But major swing in the match came in the women’s 4×100 medley relay, where Cali was controversially disqualified for a non-simultaneous touch from breaststroker Lilly King (DQ included in videos below). The Condors had initially won the race, but with the DQ, Energy Standard was awarded first place and the 38 points that went along with it. That race alone resulted in a 50-point swing between the two clubs, which was the clear difference-maker with the match being decided by just 12 points.
Cali did essentially everything they could’ve in spite of the disqualification—if it wasn’t for that one event, they would’ve won the championship handily. The biggest standout performer for the Condors was breaststroker Nic Fink, who upset Energy Standard’s Ilya Shymanovich in all three men’s breast events.
The ISL has posted some, but not all, of the meet’s races on YouTube. Events shown below include the women’s 100 fly, men’s 200 breast, men’s 4×100 free relay, men’s 50 free, women’s 400 free, the King DQ, men’s 100 breast, women’s 400 IM, women’s 100 back, men’s 50 fly and men’s skins.
The end of the International Rigging League.
A little off topic, but it is reported that a number of anti-dop ing cases against Russian sportspeople are still pending “based on samples seized from the Moscow laboratory and the LIMS database”, among which there were 8 cases WADA did not agree with and challenged in CAS.
I know it’s not good to speculate, but does anyone actually know what happened to Prigoda? It’s so weird that he’s been so quiet on social media, that none of his Roar teammates or Russian national teammates knows where he is. And he was absent from ISL and Russian short course champs without a single word.
Honestly, I would love to see a New Champion of ISL. It would kill the odds, but I would have loved that. But in real, it was clear that this battle were between Cali and Energy.
For me I supported Cali instead of Energy. Just because usually US swimmer have less highlight in Europe, and I loved to see these amazing young athletes. But this is Just my persional feeling.
On the other hand, the “fact” because I am glad with Enrrgy’s victory is Femke Heemskerk. Her last race and the photos where she holds the trophy are so emotianal. She desers that victory and it was a perfect way to Say goodbye to this amazing sport. Thank… Read more »
NIC FINK, is clearly the MVP of the day!
Honestly the only way I see the ISL getting out of this PR nightmare is declaring Energy and Cali joint winners. They can’t strip Energy of the win now that they’ve been given the trophy, but I think this whole thing will leave a sour taste in the mouths of athletes and viewers. All it takes if for a few of the big stars to drop out (and let’s face it, next year is Comm Games and World Champs so ISL won’t be a priority for most) and viewers lose interest very quickly. Watching Olympic champions smash the field or even get upset by a challenger is exciting! Watching a bunch of nobodies swim isn’t going to be exciting for… Read more »
This would be worse.
From all video replays the DQ seems to be an insanely bad call, but to be like, “oops our bad j/k actually let’s get a mulligan on that one, Cali wins too” wouldn’t be something you could come back from. Destroys the entire credibility of the league. (Which, I know.)
Yeah I can see it from that perspective. But I can also see it from the perspective that a huge chunk of viewers think the League is now rigged, or at absolute best, incompetent and unprofessional. Saying “we stuffed up” and trying to fix it is less damaging to credibility than what they’ve done so far in my opinion.