Barring any major surprises or injury, T&T Olympic-bound swimmer, USA-based Dylan Carter will contest the third straight season of the International Swimming League (ISL) as a member of the LA Current team.
This as the ISL gets set to begin the draft process for all ten teams for the 2021 season. In total, there are 940 names on the list, with only 360 spots on 10 teams available for season three of the league.
Starting Monday, the ISL will be announcing each team’s “protected” athletes: effectively, the pool from which each team will be retaining athletes as part of the draft process.
In addition to Carter, Andrew Seliskar, Apostolos Christou, Kristian Gkolomeev, Maxime Rooney, Ryan Held, Ryan Murphy, Santiago Grassi, Tom Shields and Tomoe Hvas are all named among their current team list of swimmers and expected to be retained among the LA Current men's squad.
However, the existing list of swimmers in the draft under each team thus far are not the lists of athletes that a team will protect; rather, it is the group from which the team will choose up to 15 to protect, and from which fans will pick one additional swimmer to protect.
That means the new information will tell us two big things: which athletes have declined or refused to return to their former teams (which is something the league is allowing), and which athletes are being given special exceptions after skipping the 2020 season and being allowed to return to their 2019 teams.
Also excluded are athletes who didn’t register for the 2021 ISL season.
On Monday, teams will announce the first five athletes that they will retain from their 2021 rosters and on June 28, teams will announce up to ten additional athletes that they will retain from their 2021 rosters.
After that, there will be a public vote for a 16th athlete that each team will retain from their 2021 rosters, and on June 29, teams will draft the remainder of their rosters, with the lowest finishing teams from last year’s season getting advantageous draft positions.
This group of “protected” athletes are not yet actually retained. Today’s lists show the athletes who have “confirmed their commitment to remain on their current team if selected by the team’s General Manager or if elected by the fans online, during the ISL Draft.” That means teams can essentially choose to retain athletes from these lists.
And Carter, who has been in good form with top three finishes in the three-legs of the just concluded Mare Nostrum in Monaco, Canet and Barcelona, is among a list of LA Current athletes who have opted to put their names forward to be considered for retention by their 2020 team.
An athlete who doesn’t agree to stay with their team from last season will enter the draft pool as a rookie. Unretained athletes from this list will enter the draft pool as a veteran.
Last year, Carter, a Commonwealth Games medalist and his LA Current team-mates finished in a familiar fourth spot, the same as in 2019, with 298 points.
Led by captain Caleb Dressel, the Cali Condors won the ISL Grand Final with 561.5 points, topping 2019 champion Energy Standard (464.5) by 97 while London Roar was third with 391.
In 2019, Cali placed third in the final behind Energy Standard and the London Roar.
The Condors are also the first club in league history to finish a season undefeated.
They topped Energy Standard in their only other head-to-head showdown back in Match 1, while last season’s champions fell to the London Roar at the 2019 European Derby.