On the heels of the first stop of the inaugural FINA Champions Swim Series having wrapped up in Guangzhou, China, the majority of Chinese swimmers have withdrawn from at least one of the remaining 2 stops of the circuit.
Now absent from the start lists for the upcoming FINA Champions Swim Series stops both in Budapest, Hungary (May 11-12) and Indianapolis, Indiana, USA (May 31-June 1) are Chinese big guns Sun Yang and Fu Yuanhui.
Both of these athletes made a big dent in the first stop in their home nation, with each earning $20,000 from 2 individual victories apiece. Sun took the 200m freestyle/400m freestyle double gold, while Fu won the women’s 50m and 100m backstroke sprints. They rank 15th and 13th, respectively, in the overall Champions Series money standings through the first stop.
Still listed as competing in Budapest include Xu Jiayu in the men’s 100m/200m backstroke, Wang Shun in the 200m IM, Li Bingjie in the 200m/400m free and Wang Jianjiahe in the 400m free. But, there are now zero Chinese swimmers listed in the Indianapolis stop. (Xinhua)
Seebohm will swim 50, Fesikova 100 and Kozma 200. 400 hasn’t been confirmed yet.
Not very surprising. Top Asian athletes needn’t make their living through this kind of meet. One Olympic medal is worth a lot more than all the prize money FINA can offer. Recall that Japan only sends 3 swimmers to China and 2 swimmers to Budapest, one of whom is not even selected for World Championships. And no one is going to Indianapolis. Their top medal hopes such as Seto and Ohashi are training hard in Australia and skipped all of these $$$ parties. I believe if China wasn’t the organizer of the first stop, which means they have to cooperate with Fina a little bit, they would have done the same with Japan from the very beginning.
Japanese swimmers are still trying to make their ridiculous qualifying standards for Worlds, and they only have one more shot to do it, so they most likely aren’t going to be at these meets for that reason.
Swimmers like Seto and Ohashi have already made the team but still skipped CSS. Their lack of interest in professional meets is not only reflected in the decision not to participation in Fina’s new league, but also in the fact that no Asian swimmer has committed to ISL yet. We haven’t heard any voice from Asia so far in the whole story of ISL VS. Fina. You can hardly find much coverage about the two professional leagues in Japanese media too.
After returning from the CSS, Watanabe only said in the interview that the race gave him a feel of crisis before the World Championships and that he needs to strengthen himself to get good results in Gwangju. No comment on the league itself. No comment on the money or how the new meet will influence the future of swimming. The focus is very clear.
Ohashi is still trying to make the team in the 200 fly.
I think as long as you make the team, you can swim whatever you want on the premise that you hit Fina A cut and the spot in that event hasn’t been taken by others yet.
I don’t know about Ohashi’s plan, but I don’t think It’s necessary for her to do the 200 fly in Gwangju. She hasn’t swum this event at major summer meets before, and she still can’t handle multiple events very well. She always failed to swim to her best in her last event at a major meet due to exhaustion. She went 3 seconds slower in 400IM in Budapest than what she did at Nationals, and got beaten by the Korean girl in 200IM… Read more »
It’s kind of a fair move from the Chinese swimming federation. They have already gotten about $300,000 for their swimmers of FINA’s free (almost) money. That may be quite comparable to what they pay yearly to their swimmers (have no clue how the budget of Chinese swimming federation looks like. Just guessing.) Let’s other swimmers to get a piece of this pie. The only problem is that it would be again the gift to the likes of Hosszu who will never get fed enough and with FU’s withdrawal will get extra thousands dollars. Will we ever see Hosszu’s withdrawal or her iron jaws are never stopping chewing. Money, money, money… Yes, we won’t see her competing at 400free in Budapest.… Read more »
Enough time for another cycle
Guess testing a third of the athletes at each stop leaves them with too big a chance of getting caught
Yeah not accusing Sun of anything but he did put up so ridiculous times.
To get revenge at Fina, everyone just pulls out at the last minute leaving no competitors and no meet.