SwimSwam Pulse is a recurring feature tracking and analyzing the results of our periodic A3 Performance Polls. You can cast your vote in our newest poll on the SwimSwam homepage, about halfway down the page on the right side.
Our most recent poll asked SwimSwam readers where they stood on the U.S. using the 2025 championship season to select the 2026 Pan Pac team:
Question: What is your opinion on the 2026 Pan Pac team being selected in 2025?
RESULTS
- Don’t like it – will miss out on some of the top swimmers – 55.8%
- Indifferent – if it’s going to be done once per quad, then this is the time – 33.9%
- Like it – simplifies things for the gap year with no Olympics/Worlds – 10.3%
Typically, once every quad, the United States selects its team for a major championship one year early.
Most recently, USA Swimming has used the gap year that doesn’t include the Olympics or World Championships to name the Worlds team for the year prior to the Olympics. For example, the 2014 U.S. Nationals and Pan Pacific Championships selected the 2015 World Championship team, and then four years later, the 2018 Nationals and Pan Pacs were the selection meets for the 2019 Worlds team.
Due to the truncated quad in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics, with the 2020 year essentially being a write-off, USA Swimming hosted dedicated selection meets for the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, but now that we’ve returned to a normal timeline, we’re back to naming an international team one year early once again.
However, this time the U.S. is doing things a little differently, using the 2025 summer championship meets as selection for the 2026 Pan Pacs.
Selecting an international roster 12 months early has had mixed results in the past two attempts. The 2015 World Championships weren’t up to par by American standards, finishing with eight gold and 23 total medals, hindered in large part by the absence of Michael Phelps, while 2019 was certainly much improved, with 14 gold and 27 total medals, with Caeleb Dressel, Simone Manuel and Lilly King leading the way.
However, there were clearly some missed opportunities due to the selection procedure, most notably with Regan Smith breaking the world record in the women’s 100 back leading off the medley relay despite not being able to race the individual event.
If USA Swimming is going to select one team per quad early, the Pan Pac roster seems like the way to go, given the stakes are much lower than at a World Championship, and on top of that, as long as you’re named to the team in one event, you can swim anything at Pan Pacs, so a Smith-like situation wouldn’t occur.
In our latest poll, we asked SwimSwam readers how they feel about the selection procedure for next year, and one thing is clear, only a small percentage actually like it—10.3%.
Now, with that being said, more than a third of the votes, 33.9%, said they’re indifferent to the selection process, and if this is the way it’s going to be done once per quad, this is the year to do it.
That checks out, given the relatively low stakes of Pan Pacs, and USA Swimming did cast a wide net by using five meets—Nationals, Worlds, WUGs, the U.S. Summer Championships, and World Juniors—for selection.
However, still well over half of readers, 55.8%, say they don’t like the selection procedure, as the 2026 Pan Pac team will likely be missing some top swimmers.
For example, someone who has had a breakout 2025, like Luka Mijatovic or Audrey Derivaux, won’t be on the Pan Pac roster, nor will Bella Sims, but who knows if they’ll be posting times faster next year than some of their counterparts.
There will still be a U.S. National Championship meet hosted in Irvine two weeks before Pan Pacs next summer, the meet that has previously served as the Pan Pac qualifier. And though it’s not yet clear if the Pan Pac qualifiers will be competing at that meet as a tune-up (or at least have the option to) or not, those who didn’t make the team this year will surely be motivated to make a statement there.
Below, vote in our new A3 Performance Poll, which asks: Does Rylee Erisman‘s 52.79 put the U.S. in the driver’s seat in the women’s 4×100 free?
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The A3 Performance Poll is courtesy of A3 Performance, a SwimSwam partner.
What’s the point of pre selection doesn’t contribute to great age group competitiveness during the season. Pre selection doesn’t mean they will be the best best at the time of the meet. That’s why trials are key to success. Swimmers need to do it on demand at the trials n the championships. No excuses. Performance on Demand
If I remember correctly, U.S. Swimming did not host a trial in 2015 and instead relied on the results from 2014 to select the team for the World Championship. That year, the team won only eight gold medals, whereas in 2013, they had 13 golds. This is an example of why this selection approach was not working.
I’ve heard that the reason for selecting the team so far in advance is that everyone that makes the team gets to fully prepare for Pan Pacs and doesn’t have to double taper.
Unfortunately that doesn’t mean every swimmer will still be in top form 1 year later.
In addition, there are usually around 10 that didn’t make the team but got faster over the next 12 months and would now be fast enough to make the team.
Imagine selecting our Olympic team this way. We all know it’s not smart.
ughhh Bella can’t catch a break :/
I think that they did this way, way back in the late 1900s when the chose the PanPac team (along with PanAm and WUGs) a year early. I think that if you swam faster than a qualifying time at the nationals before PanPacs, you could bump someone off.
If you have suggestions for future poll ideas, let us know in the comments!
what event needs the most work for the us men and women
my votes: distance free and breaststroke for the women, backstroke (and kinda everything) for the men
distance free? are you serious lol
who do you think will be medaling when katie retires?
relying on a single swimmer with no reliable depth behind them will hit team usa like a bag of bricks. look at whats happened to the mens team after the big names have departed the scene.
Which relay combo (regardless of country) would make the world records (e.g ceccon, qin or martinenghi, grousset, and pan/alexy for the mens 4×100) or something like that
Holding a selection meet in the same year has no guarantees either. Look at the improvement this summer of Ohashi and Nowacki in particular after they both didn’t qualify for their national team in Singapore.
“f USA Swimming is going to select one team per quad early, the Pan Pac roster seems like the way to go, given the stakes are much lower than at a World Championship, and on top of that, as long as you’re named to the team in one event, you can swim anything at Pan Pacs”
I would agree with what SwimSwam said there.
I think this year is a good example of trials not guaranteeing anything. Tess Howley would’ve won trials in the 200 fly with her time from WUGS, but then Regan Smith would’ve missed the team in that event, costing the US a silver medal. The two fastest 100 backstrokers on the men’s side also ended up at WUGS. Obviously holding a trials meet makes the most sense, but as stated, it doesn’t guarantee anything.
So, if you remove the indifferent community…
~85% – don’t like it
~15% – like it
Yet we continue to do it? Hmmmm.
😐😐😐