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FINA have announced it will host a new lucrative elite swimming series after stinging criticism from athletes but it may be too little, too late.
Stung by criticism led by Australia's Cate Campbell, world body FINA has tried to appease angry athletes by announcing it will launch the richest swimming event in history next year.
FINA says it will hold the invitation-only, three-leg Champions Swim Series - boasting $US4 million ($A5.5 million) in prize money - between March and May.
But it may be too little, too late.
The sport's biggest names will assemble in London next week to create an athletes association they hope will stand up to FINA after the world body blocked swimmers from contesting a proposed professional league.
Australia's Olympic medallist Madeline Groves and Emily Seebohm will be among a gathering boasting 11 Olympic and 18 world champions seeking to establish a Professional Swimmers Association (PSA).
"So looking forward to this and so privileged to be a part of it," Groves tweeted.
The athletes believe the PSA will give them a united voice to demand better treatment from FINA after Campbell's criticism of the world body made international headlines.
Ex-world champion Campbell ripped into FINA last week for threatening to ban swimmers from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics if they took part in the proposed competition, the International Swimming League (ISL).
Backed by Ukrainian billionaire Konstantin Grigorishin, the lucrative ISL was set to be launched in Italy this month but was scrapped after FINA made the ban threat.
A group of leading swimmers and the ISL are suing FINA as a result, with an aim to relaunch the ISL next year.
Campbell's criticism of the world body was cited in each of the separate lawsuits as "evidence that elite swimmers were strongly in favour of the new league".
Both class actions are suing FINA for "violating US anti-trust law by engaging in anti-competitive behaviour".
Grigorishin will host the summit at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge from December 18-19.
"Having a collective voice will help the swimmers create the foundation for a better future," an ISL statement said on Swimming World website.
"This is the moment when athletes can make history as the pioneers who changed their sport for the better."
Among other confirmed stars attending are England's Adam Peaty, Hungary's Katinka Hosszu, Swede Sarah Sjostrom, Italy's Federica Pellegrini and South Africa's Chad le Clos.
"Efforts to establish the League have so far been blocked by FINA but waves of world-class swimmers have urged the global body that insists on monopoly rule to think again," the ISL statement said.
"While swimmers generate hundreds of millions in revenue for FINA, swimmers have, as Grigorishin puts it, "no salary, social guarantees, no welfare, no medical and life insurance, no pension rights".
"The league (ISL) has pledged to change all that."
FINA made $A164 million in gross revenue in 2016-17 but spent less than $A29 million on prize money.
