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A number of Australia’s biggest Olympic swimming stars are caught up in the financial maelstrom engulfing the International Swimming League (ISL), with talks of a boycott of November’s finals emerging due to lack of payment for athletes, staff and contractors.
The ISL was hailed as a revolution in the sport and an antidote to the maligned governing body, FINA, which has just enacted a series of governance reforms to modernise its integrity, competition, communication and culture.
Emma McKeon, who shot to fame with a record-breaking Olympics, is among the Australians swimming in the ISL in Europe.Credit:Getty
But the new professional competition, which consists of 10 teams competing in a short-course season before culminating in a series of play-offs, has been beset by financial woes, with many swimmers yet to be paid for the 2020 season just weeks out from the first playoff match of the 2021 season in Eindhoven in from November 11.
Now there are growing fears money owed for the 2021 will not eventuate, while sources within the ISL have cast doubt on the viability of the competition in coming years after it was started with great fanfare in 2019 by Ukrainian billionaire and swimming fan Konstantin Grigorishin.
Among the Australians in action this season, which consisted of 11 meets in the Italian city of Naples, were Olympic history maker Emma McKeon, the returning Maddie Groves, sprint freestyle champion Kyle Chalmers and freestyler Madi Wilson, who also had to deal with a bout of COVID-19.
Given the ad hoc nature of some of the payments, it is difficult to know who has been paid and how much. But Rob Woodhouse, the former Australian Olympic swimmer and general manager of the London Roar team, said it had been immensely frustrating trying to retrieve the funds owed to his athletes.
“It’s not good enough. I’m really hoping all athletes are paid in full from last season before the playoffs commence on November 11,” Woodhouse told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Other sources within the ISL, which includes teams across Europe, the USA, Canada and Japan, said “so many people are owed so much money”, while the Herald and The Age have been told the ISL also owes substantial amounts to venues in the UK and Hungary, who won’t let them return until their accounts are settled.
Athletes and teams are now growing so concerned that at least one franchise will contemplate a boycott of the ISL playoffs unless payment arrives or a deal is struck with organisers. Questions sent to ISL chief executive Konstantin Koudriaev did not receive a reply.