World Aquatics to pay $4.6M US legal settlement to athletes who joined breakaway series

Olympic swimmers who challenged the sport's governing body in a United States court are set to get a multimillion-dollar settlement for athletes who took part in a breakaway series.

"World Aquatics is setting up a fund of $4.6 million US that will be distributed to swimmers who signed contracts to compete at the International Swimming League (ISL) event in Turin in 2018 and in the 2019 ISL season," the governing body said Monday in a statement.

Three Olympic and world champion swimmers — Katinka Hosszu of Hungary and Americans Tom Shields and Michael Andrew — filed an antitrust suit in California in 2018 after the governing body then known as FINA tried to stop the ISL operating outside its control.

The Lausanne-based governing body had at first threatened to ban swimmers who competed in the Ukraine-backed event, which aimed to pay higher prize money.

The rival event pushed the governing body to increase prize money for athletes at its own world championships and World Cup meetings.

"The settlement fund will ensure swimmers are more than fully compensated following the 2018 and 2019 ISL seasons," World Aquatics said Monday, adding it "looks forward to the court's approval of the settlement."

The ISL series was paused in 2022 in fallout from the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.

World Aquatics president Husain al Musallam said many of the swimmers who committed to the ISL "were badly let down."

"However, I am pleased that we are finally able to step in and provide this significant sum of money for the swimmers," he said in a statement.

A separate lawsuit by ISL "remains pending," World Aquatics said.