We’re saying goodbye to the year 2025 and looking ahead to 2026, which brings along with it a host of elite competitions.
Before we get to those high-profile meets, however, we need to first check some January meets off the list. Let’s see what we have to look forward to this month in terms of international competitions.
Please let me know in the comments of any I may have inadvertently missed.
01/09 – 01/10 South African Grand Prix (RSA)
01/10 – 01/11 Tokyo New Year Swimming Championships (JPN)
01/14 – 01/17 Pro Swim Series – Austin (USA)
01/16 – 01/18 Apostolos Pavlos Meet (GRE)
01/16 – 01/18 South Australia State Open Championships (AUS)
01/17 – 01/17 Sprint with the Stars (ROU)
01/22 – 01/25 Australian Open Water Championships (AUS)
01/23 – 01/25 Kosuke Kitajima Cup (JPN)
01/23 – 01/25 Geneva Challenge (SUI)
01/23 – 01/25 Victorian Sprint Championships (AUS)
01/30 – 02/01 Luxembourg Euro Meet (LUX)
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Not sure I’d be calling the SA Open champs a high level meet
Kyle Chalmers is about to get married soon so I’m not sure he’s in the mood for some racing
Australian Openwater Champs 22-25 January Bunbury W.A. and from my understanding it is slated to be very international with many of the world’s best Openwater swimmers making the trek down under. 50K AU$ total prize money up for grabs is nothing to be sneezed at for these guys and gals.
Did the Austin TYR Pro Swim get cancelled? Still shows up in Google search results but the link now goes to a blank page for me:
https://www.usaswimming.org/event/2026/01/14/default-calendar/tyr-pro-swim-series-austin
I’m sure that this was working a few weeks ago. On the UT website, you can still buy tickets.
Maybe just an outdated link: https://www.usaswimming.org/event/2026/01/14/default-calendar/usas-pro-swim-series-austin
Looks like TYR dropped as named sponsor (for now), so they had to update the URL. Google just didn’t pick up on it.
Awesome thank you!!!!
Looking at the Meet Information, there is a SEMI round for the 50s and 200IM…but not other 200s or 100s. If true, that is an interesting setup.
Would makes sense for the 50s. For the 200 IM semis…I had the funny thought that Bowman had a hand here (since meet is in Austin) in creating a mental exercise for Casas 😂 Although he executed his 200 IM rounds incredibly well at 2025 Worlds!
Or maybe they wanted some semis to replicate big meets, and these few events are all they could fit in.
Ha. That’s actually really interesting…
I just texted Greg to ask about this. It sounds like basically, they’re going to do semis of the other four 200 meter races at the third stop, but it was too much pressure on the meet schedule to do semis of all five events at the third stop, so they moved the 200 IM up to the first one.
Throughout the season, every event (including distances) will get a crack at their semis/prelims/whatever the proper schedule is. Not every one has semis at every meet…but every one has semis at some meet.
Kinda like the creativity to better prep for the big show without totally torpedoing the schedule.
Exactly! I know it got some flak when it was announced but I’m actually really excited about this change even if it doesn’t stick. The closer that we can get to conditions that we’re going to face on the international level the better imo, it’s not like that the US has a problem going from prelims – semis – finals, but I think the opportunity to do semi‘s at a midseason meet is an awesome opportunity, I’m going and I’m freakin stoked to swim 200s and 100s semi’s personally
I think upping the prize money for the events that are doing the full ringer is a really fun twist too. Makes it more important, incentivizes better matchups…I think you could sit here and poke holes at it, but in terms of balancing ‘competitive needs’ and ‘spectator experience,’ it’s a really good threading of the needle.
https://swimswam.com/usa-swimming-announces-revamped-pro-swim-series-format-for-2026/