Canadian superstar Summer McIntosh will skip the 2026 Commonwealth Games, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. She instead will focus on the 2026 Pan Pac Games.
The 2026 Commonwealth Games are scheduled for July 23-August 2 in Glasgow, Scotland. This is just ten days before the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships begin in Irvine, California on August 12 and run through August 15. Glasgow is eight hours ahead of Irvine, so the time change would have been one obstacle.
Swimming Canada was only allocated a quota of 12 swimmers for the scaled back 2026 edition.
McIntosh did swim at the 2022 edition of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England when she was 15 years old. There she swam to gold medals in the 200 IM and 400 IM, setting World Junior records in the process. She also swam to a silver medal in the 400 free, finishing behind Australia’s Ariarne Titmus.
Not only will McIntosh impact Canada’s medal table at the individual level but her absence takes a hit on relays as well. She helped the team to silver medals in the 4×200 free relay and 4×100 medley relay while the 4×100 free relay earned bronze.
Pan Pacs in Irvine will mark McIntosh’s debut at the Pan Pac Championships as the last edition of the meet was in 2018, when McIntosh was just 11 years old.
This past week at the 2025 World Championships, McIntosh swam to four gold medals, winning the 400 free, 200 IM, 400 IM, and 200 butterfly. She also won bronze in the 800 freestyle.
McIntosh is set to change her training base as she will join Bob Bowman in Austin, Texas later this month. Austin is only two hours ahead of Irvine, California. It also is just over a three hour plane ride to get from Austin to Los Angeles, much closer than the trip from Austin to Glasgow.
this is the nail in the commonwealth games coffin.
Swimming Canada has also only been given a quota of 12 swimmers.
True: https://www.swimming.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Nomination-Criteria-Commonwealth-Games-2026-approuved.pdf?mc_cid=138cc8f319&mc_eid=caa9d7e51e
Commonwealth Games are in trouble wow
The Empire’s in trouble.😞
Good for McIntosh for making this decision!
Aussie selection process will be interesting next year, since commonwealth games seem to be prioritised by the Swimming Australia committee.
There is a 2 week difference between pan pacs and Commonwealth games, and they will have to travel far from Edinburgh to LA.
Perhaps they are sending 2 separate teams to each game?
They really pushed for the Comm Games to go ahead inspite of Victoria Aus backing out .. then they decided to cut off many sports from the lineup anyway to save costs .. not sure why they’re trying hard to keep it going when the writings on the wall as they say .. no one wants to host it outside the UK
I’m just so annoyed at dictator Dan for bidding for it, wasted lots of money, then changing his mind. Don’t bid if you don’t want!
I wish Australia would prioritize the Pan Pacs. I can understand the appeal of the Commonwealth Games – it has history and it’s a multi-event competition which give it the atmosphere of a low-pressure Olympic Games. But the reality is that standards are higher at the Pan Pacs. I’m old enough to remember when four world records were set in one day at the Tokyo Pan Pacs in 1989. If Australia wishes to challenge the USA, it has to place less emphasis on the cheap medals on offer at the CG’s and go to where the standards are higher.
Australia was literally one race away from winning a second worlds in 3 years lol. Whatever they’re doing right now seems to be working
If Australia wanted higher level competition in mens they would go to Europe.
Comm Games is where the money is. PPs won’t even be broadcast on free to air TV.
Are the Commonwealth Games going to survive?
It’s a serious question meant respectfully.
I know they have a long history but all I’ve heard about are the recent problems.
Probably not which is sad.
2030 is the 100th anniversary. I think it may well end up as the Farewell Games.
Had Summer not swum at WC, Canada would’ve had only 3 medals, zero golds. Same basically at Paris.
As an observer from outside of Canada, is seems as though Swimming Canada uses “Hope” as a strategy for the future. There needs to be some some bold, new blood who prioritize grass roots (attracting young, athletic recruits, new and better coaching and building 50M pools because from what I’ve been reading here and in the news, they’re all closing fast and only 25M pools are being put in their place). Vancouver is closing their 50M pool for a 25M one. Montreal had a fire February 2024 and had no appropriate backup facility for trials so they had to be moved… Read more »
Spot on
Swim Canada is awful and need to be disbanded.
Fully agree, but a distance program usually gives athletes especially younger athletes more range of events
After Athens 2004 – where Canada was shut off the podium – there were published predictions [sports columnist Steve Simmons in the Toronto Sun, quoting others] that Canada wasn’t going to make any finals, let alone win medals at future Olympics.
So the worst didn’t come to pass.
Given where Canada was in 2004, success today is getting more athletes below the FINA A standard, progressing more swimmers into semis and finals and getting lanes in relay finals. So even without Summer there are some glimmers of hope. The days of Canada of having the second best (non-cheater head) women’s team in the world like in 1976 are long gone.
I’m going to sit back and enjoy… Read more »
“If my grandmother had wheels, she’d be a bike”
Anyone can throw out “whatifisms” but then they have to apply to all countries outside of US/Aus. Ie. If not for Marchand last summer, France would have won 2 medals. If not for Penny in 2016, Canada would won 3?4?
Tonnes of progress we wish Canada would/could make re pools, programs etc. But we can’t just look at medal count as measure of success or failure. There was one champs meet a few years back we had a tonne of 4th place finishes. 4th in the world is outstanding and should be celebrated despite it not garnering the medal recognition somehow established 140 years ago.
So would you agree that Canada is investing in swimming??? Clearly not. And would you agree that it is being prioritized? No. Hope IS THE STRATEGY.
No. Canada is short in investing in a tonne of Olympic sports. That’s a whole other convo.
As others said here, take out the superstar and what’s left? It’s like saying take out your star goalie and your team is weak. But … The goalie is a part of the team, as are superstars and podium monsters like Summer.
Hockey makes the evening sportscast. Swimming never gets any airtime. Not in USA, nor Canada nor the UK. It’s a pity but it’s where swimming has sort of landed. Until there is a professional league that actually is designed for a broader audience (sorry ISL your product wasn’t good for broader audiences…), it will always be an afterthought.
Totally missed the point. That was an analogy. Do the Dodgers win as many games and get anywhere near the World Series without Ohtani? Maybe, I’m not sure how much he directly impacts on a % basis.
Outside of US and Aus, every “smaller” team has a greater % of their own version of superstar contributing to medal haul, if that is what we all wish to follow as be all and end all measure of countries success.
What happened to Sweden this year, 0 medals, omg!! Oh yeah…no Sarah.
South Africa in the 2010s, mostly Le Clos, this year their new Backstroke star.
If we are going to measure a country by taking out a strong swimmer, how did the US go without KD, Australia without Molly etc.
The USA has been a swimming powerhouse for 50+ years at the OLY by and large. With China coming on very strong since 2006, there is far less room at the top for Canada to just eek along. China has massive investment in infrastructure so does Hungary. Most 50M pool per capital by far globally. Canada is frankly a joke. If my math is correct, Toronto is NA’s 4th largest city (Mexico City, NYC, LA, Toronto) and has basically 3 pools (TPASC, Markham and Olympium). So 6 million and 3 pools. None on the horizon being built either from what I’m told.
Tough to build any kind of momentum with that situation. Yikes!!!
Blame Swim Canada, Swim Ontario and… Read more »