Swimming body ends threat to ban breakaway athletes
Swimmers no longer face suspension for taking part in independent competitions
Swimming governing body FINA says athletes no longer face being banned for taking part in independently run competitions.
Olympic and world champions filed an antitrust suit in California last month after FINA's threatened to ban swimmers who competed in a meeting linked to the proposed International Swimming League.
Now FINA says "swimmers are free to participate in competitions or events staged by independent organizers."
However, results and records will be unofficial if organizers fail to get FINA's approval, fit into the official events calendar, and run an approved doping control program.
FINA has countered the ISL with a proposed three-meet series paying $3.9 million US total prize money.
It also topped up the prize fund by almost $1 million for the short-course world championships held in China last month.
Conflict between FINA and swimmers increased before the scheduled privately run meeting in December in Turin, Italy. It was canceled amid the threatened bans.
"ISL takes swimmers seriously, not like FINA," Hungarian swim great Katinka Hosszu said in December, joining American swimmers Tom Shields and Michael Andrew in filing the class action suit in California.
In a similar case, Dutch speedskaters won a European Commission ruling in Brussels in 2017 against the Swiss-based International Skating Union. They had wanted to compete in a South Korean-organized event in Dubai but were threatened with bans.
The revised FINA policy followed advice from its legal counsel, Francois Carrard, who is a key International Olympic Committee adviser after being its long-time director general.
"FINA's business is not to punish athletes," Carrard said in the FINA statement. "FINA recognizes the right of athletes to participate in any swimming event. However, this participation should respect the frame of sport structure."