By Grey Horse Communications
We teased it in our last newsletter, and now we’re shouting it from the rooftops: our client, the International Swimming League launches today as the first gender-balanced professional sports league, and also the first to pay elite swimmers living wages to compete.
Those enormous milestones will impact the landscape of competitive swimming around the globe. About 75% of swimming’s current Olympic champions and world-record holders will compete in ISL tournaments, which will rapidly establish fair pay as a standard among the world’s top swimmers. The league also plans to televise tournaments to a mass viewership – another first.
So, details: Starting in October 2019, the ISL will work within a team-based competition format, whereby swimmers compete for team points. Twelve men and 12 women will represent each team, and each athlete will sign separate contracts with their team and with the ISL, creating two sources of revenue: the athlete’s club, and the league itself.
The ISL will also be home to the first two female general managers of a pro sports league. Tina Andrew, manager of five-time world champion Michael Andrew, will serve as the GM of the New York Breakers, and Kaitlin Sandeno, Olympic gold medalist, world champion and former world record-holder, will be GM for the DC Trident. Lenny Krayzelburg, American backstroke swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, and former world record holder, will manage the Los Angeles Current, and Jason Lezak, four-time Olympic gold medalist, will serve as GM for the Cali Condors.
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See also:
* ISL Announces Four American Teams, All Short Course Meter Competitions.
* Katie Ledecky Signs Up For New Professional Swimming League.
* How Do You Launch An International Swimming League:
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Comments welcome.
Posted on April 9, 2019