Earlier this week, Canadian superstar Summer McIntosh announced she would be skipping the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. Instead, the four-time champion from last week’s World Championships has opted to solely focus on the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California, which will take place August 12-15, 2026.
The decision from McIntosh comes just a few months after Swimming Canada announced updates to the nomination criteria for the 2026 Commonwealth Games, set to take place July 24-29 of next year. The updates, which were released by Swimming Canada on April 17, came in response to the IOC announcing 50s of stroke would be added to the Olympic program beginning in 2028.
While these amendments mildly impacted the selection criteria at last week’s World Championships in Singapore, these changes will be much more pronounced come the Commonwealth Games next summer. The biggest change to this nomination criteria is the roster size, which has been cut down to just 12 swimmers total. While the 2026 iteration of the Commonwealth Games was designed to be smaller and more cost-efficient, this is a huge cut from the 28 Canadian swimmers at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
The selection document indicates that the cap was instituted by Commonwealth Sport Canada.
Swimming Canada also announced the minimum time standards for qualification, which are markedly slower than they were in 2022. Swimmers who achieve these time standards at any of the four qualification events — 2025 Canadian Swimming Trials, 2025 University Games, 2025 World Championships, and 2025 World Junior Swimming Championships — will then be ranked according to the 2024 year-end World Rankings. The top six men and women will each be nominated, with no more than three individuals nominated per event.
Swimming Canada’s Qualifying Standards
| Event | Women | Men |
| 50m Freestyle | 25.61 | 22.71 |
| 100m Freestyle | 55.88 | 49.79 |
| 200m Freestyle | 2:01.78 | 1:49.90 |
| 400m Freestyle | 4:17.74 | 3:45.99 |
| 800m Freestyle | 8:50.06 | 8:02.72 |
| 1500m Freestyle | 16:54.10 | 15:28.95 |
| 50m Backstroke | 29.07 | 25.86 |
| 100m Backstroke | 1:02.27 | 55.56 |
| 200m Backstroke | 2:15.01 | 2:01.61 |
| 50m Breaststroke | 31.67 | 27.58 |
| 100m Breaststroke | 1:08.48 | 1:01.54 |
| 200m Breaststroke | 2:30.09 | 2:14.23 |
| 50m Butterfly | 27.02 | 23.4 |
| 100m Butterfly | 1:00.09 | 53.32 |
| 200m Butterfly | 2:13.09 | 1:58.00 |
| 200m Individual Medley | 2:16.41 | 2:02.62 |
| 400m Individual Medley | 4:51.55 | 4:25.20 |
With three of the four qualifying events in the rearview mirror, here is what the projected roster looks like:
WOMEN
- Mary-Sophie Harvey (200 Free, 200 Breast, 100 Fly, 200 IM, 400 IM)
- Ella Jansen (200 Free, 400 Free, 100 Fly, 200 Fly, 400 IM)
- Alexanne Lepage (50 Breast, 100 Breast, 200 Breast)
- Kylie Masse (50 Back, 100 Back, 50 Fly)
- Taylor Ruck (50 Free, 100 Free, 100 Back, 50 Fly)
- Ingrid Wilm (100 Free, 50 Back, 100 Back, 200 Back)
MEN
- Ethan Ekk (200 Free, 400 Free, 200 Back)
- Tristan Jankovics (200 Free, 200 IM, 400 IM)
- Ilya Kharun (50 Free, 50 Fly, 100 Fly, 200 Fly)
- Finlay Knox (100 Free, 50 Back, 50 Fly, 200 IM)
- Josh Liendo (50 Free, 100 Free, 50 Fly, 100 Fly)
- Blake Tierney (50 Back, 100 Back, 200 Back)
Canadian swimmers will have one final chance to earn a bid at the 2026 Commonwealth Games at the upcoming 2025 World Junior Swimming Championships, which will take place from August 19-24. The final nominations will be announced by Swimming Canada on October 31.
Why are Canadian trials so late next year – July 2026?
Are we sure that Kharun, Liendo, Masse, MSH, Tierney, etc will go to the Commonwealth games instead of Pan Pacs? The timing makes it hard to do both.
At a meet already thin on depth of competition, bizarre to have such a small cap on numbers especially for Relays. The meet used to have 3 strong Aussies(probably still will) and 3 strong Canadian entries per event!
Is it Swimming Canada that decided that is would be a maximum of 12 athletes or is it the Commonwealth organizers?
Commonwealth Sport Canada made the edict. Not sure if that was a passalong from somewhere else that limited total team roster…
Swimming Canada made the decision to send a small team, when the timing of CG was moved from the fall. The swimming itself is not cut down at Commonwealth games. I doubt the swimmers listed above will go to comm games. They will go to pan pacs which is being treated as the main event (following trials which is in July and therefore incompatible with CG).
Yeah I think the switch to late July changed everything for Canada and McIntosh. Otherwise I think she would have done both, just like 2022.
The major issue is that the feature event needs to be first. That’s the focus. It was true of world championships in 2022 preceding Commonwealth Games by more than a month. But when you move 2026 Commonwealth ahead of Pan Pacs then you’re just asking for lower attendance and prioritization.
There isn’t a track and field world championships next year. Swimming is impacted the most with the Commonwealth date change. Fall would have been a fun low pressure season ender.
I am suprised they choose to focus on a mickey mouse 4 day meet rather than a full lentgh meet. With full strngth teams the womens side is a strong meet.
The location seems to be a major factor (ie heading into 2028)
Also, I don’t know how much this effected their decision making, but the United States doesn’t go to Commonwealth Games at all. The Australians will send a team to Pan Pacs even if it isn’t the strongest team they have. This makes Pan Pacs likely the more competitive swim meet at least at the top.
The Pan PACs is hardly mickey-mouse. In fact, the Commies is likely to fit that description next year.
Relays with only 6 per gender are always going to be… interesting, but it looks like these lineups would actually go okay for Canada. Medleys can go Masse / Lepage / MSH / Ruck and Tierney / Knox / Kharun / Liendo, and both teams have at least two entered in the 100m & 200m Freestyles, so they might be able to carry the other legs.
Interesting that Mcintosh prioritises Pan Pacs. Think every other Commonwealth athlete prioritises Commonwealths. They get a lot more coverage and publicity generally.
On second thoughts maybe not so much in Canada which can be very 51st State in its sporting preferences at times
Canada do seem to follow the US lead more than other commonwealth countries. I think it is a poor decision to target a 4 day meet as their big meet for the year.
Seems like a bizarre decision to have the qualifying athletes for a major competition that’s 11 months from now, being determined by events (3 of which have already happened with the earliest being Trials in June. 2025), so far away from the actual event.
If Pan Pacs are going to be the focus for many of the athletes (TBD other than Summer at this point), why would you cut off the qualification timing before say February or March of 2026? Surely there could be some athletes who will make some improvements and could benefit from being exposed to an international level meet of this calibre- no?
Good question. Especially as it relates to current JRs who might benefit most from attendance at CG (and not qualify for pan pacs). However, probably few LC meets in that timeframe to make a difference.
good opportunity to practice that medley relay