Crippen Cup prize purse up to $22000, more than FINA World Cup event in UAE

The Crippen Cup 10K open water race has officially raised $22,000 in donations to fund its prize purse in its second year.

That gives the Crippen Cup a better payout than FINA’s 10K Marathon Swimming World Cup, a goal the Cup organizers have had since FINA awarded a World Cup stop to the United Arab Emirates.

The Crippen Cup honors former American open water swimmer Fran Crippen, who died at a UAE-hosted open water race in 2010. Many of Crippen’s supporters criticized the UAE hosts for moving forward with the race even though the water was dangerously warm and led to heat-related problems in multiple athletes.

We reported last week that organizers of the Crippen Cup were working to raise donations for a $20,000 prize purse, hoping to convince athletes to attend their race and not the UAE-hosted World Cup event a few weeks earlier.

As of Tuesday, the Crippen Cup has surpassed its goal.

The meet announced that its prize purse was up to $22,000, $2000 more than the purse at the FINA World Cup event. The money is split between the top 5 finishers in each gender. FINA’s event gives money to the top 8 in each race, so while less swimmers will win money under the current Crippen Cup setup, the top finishers stand to earn significantly more for their efforts.

The Crippen Cup will take place on March 28th at Miromar Lake, Florida, the site of U.S. Nationals the following month.