2021 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE – SEASON 3, MATCH 18 – LEAGUE FINAL
- Friday, December 3rd – Saturday, December 4th
- 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm local time; 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST
- Pieter van den Hoogenband Zwemstadion, Eindhoven, Netherlands
- Short Course Meters (25m – SCM) Format
- ISL Season 3 Schedules, Start Times, & More
- Live Results
- Teams Competing: Energy Standard, Cali Condors, London Roar, LA Current
Beryl Gastaldello, a French Olympian and key swimmer for LA Current, has announced she won’t be competing in the International Swimming League Finale, set to take place Friday and Saturday.
Gastaldello announced the news via her Instagram, saying that because she couldn’t compete in the semi-finals due to an undisclosed “personal issue,” the team asked her not to swim in the finale.
View this post on Instagram
“Unfortunately I will not be going to the ISL finale tomorrow with the LA Current,” Gastaldello wrote in the post. “I had to take care of a personal matter which necessitated my taking time off from the semi finals. LA Current subsequently directed me not to compete in the finale.”
Instead, Gastaldello wrote she would be competing this weekend in Paris, representing her new club team — Etoiles 92 — for the first time. She also said she will be representing them at French Nationals, but that her focus is now on Worlds.
Gastaldello recently announced that she would train under Coley Stickels in the United States going forward, but representing Etoiles 92 at domestic events in France.
Gastaldello’s absence from the meet is a crucial blow for the LA Current. Already facing an uphill battle into the final, her absence probably eliminates them from title contention.
Gastaldello also could have earned points in the 100 IM. On the women’s side, LA is lacking in swimmers that can compete for points in the IM events.
Out of everyone who’s ever swam in the ISL over its three-season run, Gastaldello has won 32 events, the ninth-most out of any swimmer. Twenty-eight of those events were individual, the highest percentage of individual wins out of any of the top ten winners.
During the 2021 regular season, she averaged just under 15 points a match. In the regular season, she ranked 119th in the league in MVP scoring. She is also the ISL record holder in the 100 IM.
Her announcement was accompanied by a disappointed-face emoji and an implication that not competing in the finale was the team’s choice, not hers. She did, however, wish her teammates luck:
“I wish all of my teammates fast swimming and I hope to see them finish on a high note,” she wrote.
Well, this is disappointing.
I hope this isn’t some shady behaviour from either end. But in any case, I hope Gastaldello is able to go to a different team for next season. Aqua maybe
She might have taken time off to be with her mum, who is fighting against cancer (she posted this info on Insta). This would make LA decision even odder.
It just makes no sense. Listened to her on a Brett Hawke podcast last year. She was a breath of fresh air. Why would LA make this decision? Would they do the same thing to a USA swimmer?
I’m of two minds here. One, she wasn’t as amazing as last season, but still a solid point scorer, so weird move by LA. On the other hand, there were so many absences and people who ‘sat out’ part/all of the regular season and/or playoffs, it felt like complete amateur hour, the opposite of a “professional” swim league… so keeping swimmers out of the final who don’t show up for their job (unless they’re sick/injured or there was a serious family matter) seems an okay move to me. It’s just strange that they’d pick now and her to get strict 🤷
She’s swam in more matches this season than Murphy has and they haven’t kicked him out
Presumably they knew about Murphy ahead of time and Murphy didn’t skip out in the middle of playoffs.
It’s almost as if…she knows…that nobody at the team or league will say anything to anybody about anything…so she can tell whatever version of the story she wants…and nobody will refute her…🤷♀️
The ISL bubble of silence is starting to backfire.
What version is she telling exactly? She had a personal matter that she didn’t want to address publicly (her mom’s cancer, depression, whatever it is-its PERSONAL and she clearly dosent want anyone to know). There is no story here, thus no version.
Saying her coach who coaches Frogs has a conflict of interest is a stretch. Last time i checked, Frogs didnt make finals so where would the conflict of interest lie? She clearly wanted to swim in the finals.
The version she told is “I wanted to swim, LA was unreasonable and told me I couldn’t swim in finals.”
If you don’t think she’s trying to paint herself as innocent and LA as the only bad actors in this scenario, I don’t know what to tell you. You’re ignoring the part you want to ignore.
Nope. Your quotes are not accurate and that’s not what she said. Who is ignoring the parts you want to ignore here? She never said anything about LA being unreasonable. She said she wanted to swim and was directed not to and wished her teammates good luck. Nothing more to it.
Something is odd here- I agree people have been in/out of Isl matches and semis all season long and everyone seems to be ok with that. What could have happened that would basically force LA Current to forego one of their best swimmers in the final?
Rip
Very bizarre choice by LA. She set the field leading time less than two weeks ago. I could almost understand making her relay only if they felt they wanted to reward swimmers who stuck around the entire playoffs, but to kick her out completely when she’s a 51 freestyle leg that could determine whether LA wins the free relay is odd. I wonder if there is more to the story.
Especially when so many “stars” just pop in and out.
There has to be more to the story, but I’m sure we’ll never hear it. Feel like teams are generally really respectful of situations where someone is out for personal reasons. For them to hold her out of the final after missing for that, they must not have liked whatever it was that caused her to miss the semifinal.
She is on record as suffering depression & other issues . She went home to France came back very much faster . However she missed the French team for Tokyo so I’d expect she is still mentally rehabbing that disappointment . .
She didn’t miss the French team for Tokyo – she led off their 4×100 free relay in prelims.
Not sure which is worse , to not go or to go & a SwSW commenter said you did not go because meagre results.
Not go is def worse lol
If this is even half true and LA took her out for taking care of her personal well-being (ie depression) then shame on them.
Who knows. It’s perfectly plausible that someone high in the team issued an ultimatum and won’t back down. Gastaldello staying classy in her comment.
Anybody who’s met beryl will have a hard time believing that this interaction was as innocent as it sounds, unless someone wants to provide more specifics.
Beryl is….aggressive.
Which is a good trait when your swimming for yourself but the ISL is a team game so that could make sense.
yet she was voted as the team captain. the team obviously felt otherwise.
Marsh(or someone else with the team) felt slighted by her opting out of semis with late notice? That would be my guess. Not a great look from afar.
But people have been flitting in and out of matches all season and no one seems to care. Odd they would bench a strong swimmer because she missed one match that really didn’t end up being important.
Marsh has his favorites (Baker and his own daughter for example) and they can come and go as they please. Apparently not the case with Beryl.
Does Marsh havce a conflict of interest if he is slotting one of his athletes into the vacant races?
Y’all are making this way harder than it is.
Beryl probably decided last minute to not race, or didn’t tell anyone she wasn’t going to be there, there was a conflict, it escalated, probably not-so-nice things were said…
It’s #thecoleyeffect.
Remember that Beryl’s new coach, a coach who demands ultimate loyalty from his athletes, is a coach on another team. Maybe HE has the conflict of interest?
You clearly didn’t read her post. She wanted to compete in the finals. Stop with the blaming Coley nonsense she’s a grown woman.
“probably, probably, maybe” = conjecture.
When you’re vague, you leave room for conjecture.
You tell me what you think she was trying to communicate with the way she phrased that post then?
It’s like she wants everyone to be mad at LA Current (which is exactly what’s happening) without having to take the blame for trying to make everyone mad at LA Current. You can’t have it both ways. Take your potshots or don’t, but if you’re going to take them own them.