International Swimming League to return to London with December All-Star Match
Key Takeaways
- •The International Swimming League will return with a one-night All-Star Match at London’s Aquatics Centre on 19 December.
- •Organisers say the competition will offer a record prize pot for a single night of swimming.
- •The athlete lineup has not yet been announced, although past ISL events featured swimmers such as Adam Peaty, Caeleb Dressel and Katinka Hosszu.
- •The ISL has been on pause since 2022, following its last full season in 2021 and a later restructuring under new leadership.
- •The league’s new leadership said last year that it planned to relaunch the ISL in 2026.
London is set to host the return of the International Swimming League (ISL), with a one-night All-Star Match scheduled for the Aquatics Centre in December.
The team series ran for three seasons and sparked a dispute between swimmers including Britain’s Adam Peaty and the sport’s governing body, but it has been on pause since 2022.
Organisers said the ISL All-Star Match will offer a record prize pot for a single night of swimming competition. Participants have not yet been announced, although previous editions featured Olympic champions including Peaty, Caeleb Dressel and Katinka Hosszu.
The event also marks a notable step for a league that had been absent from the calendar for several years, after its last full season ended in 2021 and the project was then reshaped under new leadership. For fans and athletes, that makes the December meeting less a regular-season return than a test of whether the ISL can again stage the high-production, short-format racing that originally set it apart.
“The All-Star Match is the moment swimming has been waiting for: the world’s best athletes, back on the ISL stage,” commissioner Ben Allen said.
“London is the perfect host city, with a venue built for nights like this and in front of one of the world’s great sporting audiences. We cannot wait to give fans a night to remember.”
The competition is due to take place at the London 2012 Olympics venue in Stratford on Saturday 19 December.
Disruptor ISL’s colourful history
The ISL’s comeback is the latest development in the short but colourful history of a sports property launched and funded by Ukrainian billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin.
His plan for an elite, high-production spectacle designed to promote swimming and support athletes between Olympic Games sent shockwaves through the sport.
Governing body FINA initially threatened to ban swimmers who took part in the ISL from the Olympics, but later relented after multiple lawsuits.
An eight-team first season was held in late 2019, and Grigorishin managed to salvage the 2020 campaign despite Covid by staging its five-week run in a medical bubble in Budapest.
The third season proved to be the last, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered sanctions and asset freezes on Grigorishin, crippling the ISL.
After a commercial restructuring aimed at reducing its reliance on a benefactor, the league’s new leadership announced last year that it planned to relaunch in 2026.
