We reported last week how Team Iron was beefing up its talent line-up with the likes of Alia Atkinson of Jamaica and Ranomi Kromowidjojo of Netherlands, but even more new members have been added to the Katinka Hosszu co-owned squad.
Per social media announcements, the following members will join Team Iron for its inaugural season:
- Fanny Lecluyse, Iron Puma – Belgian Olympian Lecluyse is a breaststroking machine, having secured 4 Short Course European Championships medals over the course of her career. The 27-year-old most recently took 200m breaststroke gold at the 2018 Short Course World Championships.
- Jessica Vall, Iron Cobra – Spaniard Vall is also a breaststroking ace, holding a total of 5 national records across both long course and short course. Vall took 200m breaststroke gold in 2017 at the Short Course European Championships and most recently secured silver at last year’s Long Course European Championships.
- Robert Glinta, Iron Alien – The 21-year-old Glinta took part in the 2016 Olympic Games, finishing 8th in the 100m backstroke. Glinta scored a new Romanian National Record at last year’s European Championships and ultimately took silver in the race in Glasgow.
- Kira Toussaint, Iron Tiger – Toussaint has just returned from a voluntary suspension over a positive doping test that turned out to be a lab testing error. The vindicated athlete just nailed a World Championships-qualifying time in Marseille at the FFN Golden Tour, clocking a 100m backstroke time of 59.82 to come within .02 of her own Dutch National Record in the event.
- Mie Nielsen, TBD – Nielsen is an Olympic bronze medalist, having earned hardware in Rio as a part of Denmark’s 4x100m medley relay. She also took bronze the year earlier in the 100m backstroke in Kazan at the 2017 World Championships. The 22-year-old Danish swimmer competed at the Flanders Cup in Belgium already this season, where she put up a solid 1:00.24 100m back performance.
- David Verraszto, TBD – Hosszu has another Hungarian on the squad in teh form of 30-year-old Verraszto, the racing veteran who is versatile across several different events. He is the two-time European Champion in the men’s 400m IM event and also took silver in that race at the 2017 World Championships. He’s currently ranked #2 in the world in the 400m IM.
- Jenna Laukkanen, Iron Lion – Finnish swimmer Laukkanen snagged 50m breaststroke at the 2016 European Championships and followed that up with 2 silvers at the 2017 Short Course edition of the championships. In Rio, Laukkanen finished 18th in the 100m breast and 14th in the 200, notching National Records in each.
The team is currently scheduled to compete in front of its home crowd the last weekend of October.
Loretta, David Verraszto is 3 times 400 IM European Champion in a row, 2014,16, and 18.
All these “iron” creatures are not natural swimmer. Some of them hate to be wet and some like Alien may never seen the water. I can advise the classification commonly used in kindergartens: Tuna, Dolphin, Shark, Whale.
And why of them are “iron”? Are they not qualified for some noble metal attribute. It is easier to imagine a golden Puma rather than an iron barely moving animal. And this “iron Tiger”. First thing that comes in association with this name is a heavy tank of Nazi army in WWII.
And you call this a professional team? I think that whoever is managing this team has to be of the name Smith or Kuznetsoff or Koval or …
The FINA-Employee is back…
If it is about me then thank you for showing the respect by writing names with capital letters.
Btw the ISL hasn’t acted yet the way to be respected for. The only thing that they have done was betraying swimmers by canceling absolutely unexpectedly the energy for swim meet. So let’s return to this discussion in a year to see if it will be an honor to be called an isl employee.
FINA employee? I always assumed Yozhik was Shane Tusip considering all his criticism of Hosszu.
All these creatures are natural swimmers, buddy. Only human beings and anthropoids can’t swim when they are born. Just as you.
Everybody knows you are a hater but it’s very simple when you are swimming for a professional club so called Iron Swim you will have a contract to call yourself Iron anything. Easy not?
Katinka is managing this team as you know, too.
By the way you will like it she renamed her swimming club to Iron Swim Budapest, and got 160.5 K USD from the capital for this year just because of this.
Otherwise I didn’t see any member so called Iron Panzerkampfwagen VI.
Do you think it is time to change your name to “ironish” in support of this team. You may earn with that the distinctive title of Iron Fan and maybe some iron money as reward.
People are tired of watching FINA it’s just so boring. Consider some exciting new formats if you want to stay relevant.
No, i don’t think so. I simply don’t like pedantic foolish person, that’s all.
So you are hater(disliker) as well. Welcome to the club 😀
Absolutely not, but thanks 😃
Why haven’t the American teams been named?
I’m unsure if all 3-4 team will be able to fill their rosters with 12 female and 12 male swimmers. It looks like all the Canadians will swim for European teams, so the teams will be almost all Americans. There’s not 72-96 American pros. I hope some Asian, African and South American swimmers will help fill up the teams.
I’m thinking about the same thing. As NCAA swimmers are not allowed to take part in such professional leagues, Canadians & Australians sign with European teams, and Asian swimmers show little interest, ISL USA will have trouble filling up four teams. I’m also wondering whether they have even started their recruits yet.
Gator – nobody knows. We can’t figure out why the list of teams itself hasn’t been named yet, either.