2026 Pan Pacific Championships: Key Matchups and Swimmers to Watch

For the first time since the 2010 Pan Pacific Championships, the event is back on American soil. Although Pan Pacs doesn’t always get the same hype as World Championships or the Olympic Games, this year’s meet is loaded with must-watch matchups.

World records will be on life support, old rivalries will be renewed, and new stars will emerge. Here are five storylines worth clearing your schedule for:

Finke’s was the man to beat in the 800 freestyle after the Olympics in Tokyo, but he hasn’t looked like his best self since Paris. Enter 22-year-old Sam Short, the Australian who swept the 400, 800 and 1500 at this summer’s Commonwealth Games. Short is having an exceptional summer and is looking to continue his hot streak at Pan Pacs.

Short’s race plan typically the opposite of Finke’s. He likes to go out fast and make the competition hurt early, while Finke has built his career on an impressive back-half. If Short can build enough of a cushion before Finke’s motor kicks in, the race could over at the halfway mark. If not, expect Finke to close well, flexing his iconic closing speed down the stretch.

Betting against Ledecky in the 800 free is historically a bad idea. She owns the world record and has rarely been challenged in the final 200 meters of this race as she’s spent a decade making it look routine.

But Australia’s Lani Pallister is arriving off a Commonwealth Games where she dominated the distance events, and she’s got real range to back it up.

Nobody’s picking Pallister to win. However, Pallister’s fast, fearless racing style is the kind of thing that will make Ledecky work for it.

This matchup is pure chaos in the best way: two Team USA teammates who also happen to be training partners.

Not only that, they have both taken down the 50 freestyle World Record this summer, and Walsh stole it from Douglass less than two weeks after she broke it.

With less five one-hundredths of a second separating the two, the race to lower the world record will be on. Walsh currently holds the fastest mark in history at 23.55, and Douglass has been as fast as 23.59 herself.

Reaction time and a well-timed finish could be the difference between a new world record and second place. For just under 24 seconds fans won’t be able to blink, or they might miss the fastest swim in history.

McIntosh scratched the 200 fly at Pan Pacs, a race she’s already broken the world record in. This decision shows that she’s got her sights set on the 200 free. With one fewer event to manage, she’ll have more in the tank to spend on a race where she’s already among the fastest in the world.

Her training partner Leon Marchand just put up the sixth-fastest 200 free ever at the European Championships. If that kind of form is rubbing off in practice, McIntosh chasing a world record isn’t far-fetched at all. This race will be worth tuning in just to see if McIntosh can rewrite history once again.

The relay rivalry that’s defined this sport for decades looks lopsided heading into this meet. A wave of Australian stars, including Kaylee McKeown, Cam McEvoy, Mollie O’Callaghan and Kyle Chalmers, are sitting out. That leaves the door wide open for Team USA to run the table.

History says don’t get comfortable, as Australia has broken American hearts in relays plenty of times before, often when nobody saw it coming. But on paper, with this much firepower missing from the Aussie side, USA Swimming has a real chance to make a statement heading toward the next Olympic cycle.

The question heading into the meet is whether the U.S. can win, its whether they can do it convincingly enough to tip the scale in their favor in one of swimming’s greatest rivalries.