By Nick Pecoraro on SwimSwam
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
Data Collection Courtesy of SwimSwam’s Barry Revzin
*12/23 update: According to ISL rules, there is a $1k bonus awarded to each swimmer per regular season match for Vegas qualifiers only. Therefore, some data has been corrected by $1k-$2k. All math below is now updated.
At the end of the ISL grand final in Las Vegas, it was Energy Standard’s Sarah Sjostrom who finished on top of the prize money lists with the completion of the inaugural International Swimming League season. Sjostrom finished the season with $139,700 earnings, $41,000 ahead of runner-up Caeleb Dressel($97,700). Only 9 swimmers earned over $40k, making Sjostrom’s earnings even more spectacular.
| Rank | Name | Club | Total |
| 1 | Sarah Sjostrom | ENS | $139,700 |
| 2 | Caeleb Dressel | CAC | $98,700 |
| 3 | Florent Manaudou | ENS | $58,700 |
| 4 | Chad le Clos | ENS | $54,100 |
| 5 | Cate Campbell | LON | $52,200 |
However, at the finale, it was Vegas MVP Dressel who topped the meet earnings with $45,500, which is right under $10k more than season MVP Sjostrom. Just like Sjostrom’s season earnings, only 19 swimmers earned more than Dressel’s gap between him and Sjostrom, showing just how dominant both Dressel and Sjostrom were in the first-ever ISL season.
| Rank | Name | Club | Vegas Earnings |
| 1 | Caeleb Dressel | CAC | $45,500 |
| 2 | Sarah Sjostrom | ENS | $36,000 |
| 3 | Florent Manaudou | ENS | $22,000 |
| 4 | Cate Campbell | LON | $22,000 |
| 5 | Lilly King | CAC | $21,000 |
| 6 | Daiya Seto | ENS | $18,000 |
| 7 | Emma McKeon | LON | $17,000 |
| 8 | Duncan Scott | LON | $16,000 |
| 9 | Nic Fink | CAC | $14,500 |
| 10 | Olivia Smoliga | CAC | $14,000 |
Comparison to FINA Prize Monies
Totaling up all prize money earnings at the end of the season, the International Swimming League awarded $2,580,400 to the 256 athletes across the 3-month season, which is notably $166,400 more than the total prize money handed out to swimmers at the 2-week-long 2019 LC World Championships.
A few caveats: the World Championships total doesn’t include World Record bonuses. There were also significant sums being paid out to ‘ambassadors’ in the ISL – we don’t know exactly how much was being paid in total appearance fees, but Federica Pellegrini was paid around $40,000. In a comparison, this can be offset by the fact that athletes earn national Olympic committee or federation bonuses for their results at the long course World Championships – for example, every gold medal at the World Championships this year for American swimmers netted them an additional $7,500 through Operation Gold.
So, in sum, the prize money available in the 2019 ISL season, season-wide, was effectively the same as the prize money available at the 8 day World Championships this summer.
At the 2018 SC World Championships, FINA handed out $1,532,200 prize money, which was $202,600 more than the ISL’s regular season total earnings (six total meets, $179,400 per meet).
| Total Prize Money | |
| 2019 ISL Season | $2,580,400 |
| 2019 LC Worlds | $2,414,000 |
| 2018 SC Worlds | $1,532,000 |
| All ISL Matches/Derbies | $1,255,800 |
| Team Bonus | $644,000 |
| Las Vegas Finale | $598,000 |
| 2019 PSS Season | $551,001 |
| Each ISL Regular Season Match | $179,400 |
Excluding the top 3 values (to make the data more fair with Dressel/Sjostrom’s earnings), there was only a minimal difference among the average earnings in the top 15%, which is roughly the top 30-40 athletes. Since the ISL season was 3 months long, in contrast to LC Worlds’ 2-week bout, it shows that the ISL is a much bigger commitment for less money (if you’re counting money made by meet, not total).
Other Notes
- 5 swimmers made $50k+
- 9 made $40k+
- 26 made $25k+
- 91 made $10k+
- 227 made > $1
- 29 competed and made $0
2019 International Swim League Season – Total Prize Money List
| Rank | Name | Club | Total | Vegas | Team Bonus | MVP | Indy | Naples | Dallas | Budapest | College Park | London |
| 1 | SJOSTROM Sarah | ENS | $139,700 | $36,000 | $13,000 | $55,000 | $13,500 | $12,900 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $9,300 |
| 2 | DRESSEL Caeleb | CAC | $98,700 | $45,500 | $5,000 | $20,000 | $0 | $13,500 | $0 | $0 | $14,700 | $0 |
| 3 | MANAUDOU Florent | ENS |