Kaitlin Sandeno and Jason Lezak, Team USA stars turned Pro-Sport General Managers, show their competitive sport as they tell Craig Lord why their sport needs the International Swimming League.
Beyond filling “the void” between Olympics with a Pro-Team show like no other ever seen in the pool, the pioneer managers talk about the way things have been, the struggle athletes have had to make ends meet while striving to live their Olympic dream, how squads have developed their ISL logos and branding and how they will build market value at the start of a new era in the sport.
Up top, Sandeno, manager for the DC Trident, notes that swimmers are a big-ticket draw at the Olympic Games yet in between the big show once every four years, they fade from view. In the void, they return to the circuit of events that are part of an old-model tradition and format that has stayed, essentially, the same for decades, stretching back to the days of amateurism and a time when laws prevented athletes from earning a living from their sport.
Cali Condors manager Lezak tells us why he thinks penalties for swimming too slow in the League are a good idea as he and Sandeno get into the nitty gritty of the ISL, what it is, what its for and where its going to take swimming in the years ahead as the first season of a League looming large on the horizon.
The fun ahead is tangible as Sandeno and Lezak have trouble hiding the competitiveness that took them to the heights of their sport.
Watch the video:
The 2019 League – Dates and Venues:
- 5-6 October – IU Natatorium, Indianapolis, USA
- 12-13 October – Aquatic Swimming Complex, Napoli, Italy
- 19-20 October – The LISD Westside Aquatic Center, Lewisville, Texas, USA
- 26-27 October – Duna Area, Budapest, Hungary
- 16-17 November – Natatorium at the Eppley Recreation Center, Maryland, USA
- 23-24 November – London Aquatic Centre, Great Britain
- 20-21 December – Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Las Vegas, USA
