The inaugural FINA Champions Series concluded last week in Indianapolis. It was a great showcase for the world’s best sprinters in three different continents and the athletes were able to win lots of money in the process. Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu and USA’s Michael Andrew won over $100,000 in prize money over the three meets.
They were among 18 swimmers to make it to all three stops of the meet. Dmitriy Balandin, Pernille Blume, Anton Chupkov, Anthony Ervin, Robert Glinta, Joao Gomes, Andriy Govorov, Molly Hannis, Felipe Lima, Vladimir Morozov, Danas Rapsys, Mykhailo Romanchuk, Nicholas Santos, Fabio Scozzoli, Pieter Timmers, Andrew, Hosszu and Sjostrom made it to all three meets.
FINA, the governing body of swimming, launched the “Champions Swim Series” as a “brand new event conceptualized for aquatics champions, with an innovative competition format creating a world-class platform for elite-level swimmers, and developing a fresh focus on the world’s biggest swimming stars.”
Objectives (as outlined by FINA)
- stage the greatest swimming events ever seen
- generate international TV, digital and media interest
- give high-level swimmers increased attention and appearance
- create a world-class platform for swimming.
- establish the event as the most important swimming event in the annual calendar after the World Championships and Olympics
- use sport as theatre
- be a must-have event for cities, broadcasters and sponsors
- create a new star-culture in swimming events
Whether the FINA Champions Series is to be offered in 2020 remains to be seen. Almost all of the athletes interviewed at the meet in Indianapolis were in favor of the meet and spoke very highly of it.
First place winners in the individual events won $10,000 while second place won $8,000, third place won $6,000 and fourth place won $5,000. A world record bonus of $20,000 was also on the table but no world records were broken. A total of $29,000 was given out in each individual event and $812,000 per meet.
In relays, the winning relay won $16,000 while second place won $12,000 and third place won $8,000.
*Swimming World is still awaiting confirmation from FINA about the official money list.
The list is as follows (in thousands):
Women
- Sarah Sjostrom, SWE, $148
- Katinka Hosszu, HUN, $124.5
- Yulia Efimova, RUS, $60.5
- Ranomi Kromowidjojo, NED, $57
- Molly Hannis, USA, $53.5
- Kelsi Dahlia, USA, $53
- Pernille Blume, DEN, $51
- Anastasia Fesikova, RUS, $44.5
- Penny Oleksiak, CAN, $42
- Farida Osman, EGY, $39
- Emily Seebohm, AUS, $37
- Lilly King, USA, $35.5
- Li Bingjie, CHN, $34
- Georgia Davies, GBR, $32.5
- Kylie Masse, CAN, $32
- Imogen Clark, GBR, $29
- Margherita Panziera, ITA, $28
- Cate Campbell, AUS, $27.5
- Etiene Medeiros, BRA, $25
- Ye Shiwen, CHN, $25
- Leah Smith, USA, $23
- Katie Meili, USA, $23
- Hali Flickinger, USA, $23
- Wang Jianjiahe, CHN, $21
- Fu Yuanhui, CHN, $20
- Melanie Margalis, USA, $19
- Kim Seoyeong, KOR, $16
- Siobhan O’Connor, GBR, $15
- Federica Pellegrini, ITA, $14
- Yu Jingyao, CHN, $14
- Ajna Kesely, HUN, $13.5
- Dana Vollmer, USA, $12
- Sydney Pickrem, CAN, $11.5
- Zhang Yuhan, CHN, $11
- Holly Hibbott, GBR, $11
- Micah Sumrall, USA, $11
- Zhang Yufei, CHN, $10
- Bethany Galat, USA, $10
- He Yun, CHN, $10
- Franziska Hentke, GER, $9.5
- Liu Xiang, CHN, $8
- Peng Xuwei, CHN, $8
- Eszter Bekesi, HUN, $8
- Zhou Min, CHN, $6
- Veronika Andrusenko, RUS, $6
- Boglarka Kapas, HUN, $6
- Liu Yaxin, CHN, $6
- Feng Junyang, CHN, $6
- Alys Thomas, GBR, $5
- Zsuzsanna Jakabos, HUN, $5
- Zhang Sishi, CHN, $5
- Katalin Burian, HUN, $5
Men
- Michael Andrew, USA, $106
- Vladimir Morozov, RUS, $61.5
- Danas Rapsys, LTU, $61
- Anton Chupkov, RUS, $52
- Chad Le Clos, RSA, $50
- Matt Grevers, USA, $43
- Kliment Kolesnikov, RUS, $40.5
- Nicholas Santos, BRA, $39
- Pieter Timmers, BEL, $39
- Ben Proud, GBR, $38
- Fabio Scozzoli, ITA, $36
- Jacob Pebley, USA, $35
- Joao Gomes, BRA, $33.5
- Xu Jiayu, CHN, $31
- Robert Glinta, ROU, $31
- Ryan Murphy, USA, $29
- Chase Kalisz, USA, $28
- Felipe Lima, BRA, $27.5
- Andriy Govorov, UKR, $27
- Arno Kamminga, NED, $25
- Gabriele Detti, ITA, $24
- Dmitriy Balandin, KAZ, $23
- Townley Haas, USA, $22
- Wang Shun, CHN, $21
- Sun Yang, CHN, $20
- Evgeny Rylov, RUS, $20
- Bruno Fratus, BRA, $19
- Josh Prenot, USA, $19
- Mykhailo Romanchuk, UKR, $19
- Kristof Milak, HUN, $18
- Masato Sakai, JPN, $18
- Jack Conger, USA, $17
- Laszlo Cseh, HUN, $16
- Ryosuke Irie, JPN, $16
- Qin Haiyang, CHN, $16
- Andrei Minakov, RUS, $15
- Anthony Ervin, USA, $15
- Aleksandr Krasnykh, RUS, $14
- Ippei Watanabe, JPN, $14
- Jeremy Desplanches, SUI, $14
- Justin Ress, USA, $14
- Li Zhuhao, CHN, $14
- Piero Codia, ITA, $13
- Zach Harting, USA, $12.5
- Cody Miller, USA, $12
- Philip Heintz, GER, $10.5
- Kevin Cordes, USA, $10
- Mehdy Metella, FRA, $10
- Justin Wright, USA, $8
- Ross Murdoch, GBR, $6
- Li Guangyuan, CHN, $6
- Jack McLoughlin, AUS, $6
- Wang Yizhe, CHN, $6
- Dominik Kozma, HUN, $6
- Oleg Kostin, RUS, $5
- Peter Bernek, HUN, $5
- Wang Zhou, CHN, $5
- He Junyi, CHN, $4