Click on the video player above&nbsp;to watch live action from&nbsp;the&nbsp;International Swimming League Finals, in Las Vegas.

Pro swimming league making big waves in its debut season: Russell

The seven-event pro series has been able to attract an eclectic bevy of Olympic and world champions from every part of the planet. As Scott Russell writes, the ISL has grown from being known as a Russian oligarch's pet project into a legitimate event - and its success is making waves.

Canada's Kylie Masse, shown in this file photo, in just one of many world champion swimmers that were drawn into competing in the debut season of the International Swimming League. This is a new direction for our sport, but it seems to be catching on and it should help to grow swimming," Masse says.

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Canada's Sydney Pickrem says that her time in the ISL has been a blast since "an enthusiastic audience makes all the difference when racing."

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Can a pro swimming startup revolutionize the sport?

The newly launched International Swimming League is threatening to upend the sport’s traditional power structure — if it can survive.

IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR LAPRESSE - Katie Ledecky (USA) competes at the International swimming league competition at Indiana University natatorium on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2019, in Indianapolis, IN, USA. (Gian Mattia D'Alberto/LaPresse via AP Images)

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Katie Ledecky is one of the stars competing in the new International Swimming League.

Watch coverage of the International Swimming League final from Las Vegas, Nev.

Watch the International Swimming League Final in Las Vegas

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