USA Swimming has released it’s selection meetsfor the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships in a message sent to the National Team and National Junior team. According to the release, USAS is following the recommendations provided by the National Team Steering Committee for selecting the 2026 Pan Pacs roster.
The top line of the announcement is that the following competitions will be included in the Pan Pacs selection process:
- 2025 Nationals
- 2025 World Championships
- 2025 World Junior Championships
- 2025 World University Games
- 2025 TYR Summer Championships
USA Swimming makes a point that the 2025 TYR Summer Championships only includes performances from the meet held from August 5-8, and does not include any performances from the TYR Pro Swim Series meets.
As the USA Swimming message states, this is only the announcement of which meets will be included in the selection process from the 2026 Pan Pacs team. The full selection procedures, including order of priority for those meets, will be announced at a later date.
USA Swimming also notes that the 2026 Nationals will not be a selection meet for Pan Pacs, however, it will be a selection meet for 2026 Junior Pan Pacs.
The Steering Committee states that it believes this approach to selection for 2026 Pan Pacs will improve the performance of the 2028 LA Olympic Team. The reasons they list out for this opinion are as follows:
- Athletes will have a full season to train uninterrupted by a selection competition.
- Athletes and coaches can plan the 2026 season knowing their calendar and primary competitions well in advance.
- Athletes who have competed in trial meets every year since 2021 will have a mental break from the stress of a qualifying competition.
- All of the above benefits can be gained while still allowing for direct selection for both LCM World Championships in this quad.
As we already knew, the 2025 Nationals meet will be a selection meet for three international teams. The priority order of selection for those three meets are as follows:
- World Championships
- World Junior Championships
- World University Games
The complete selection procedures for those teams are slated to be announced in early 2025.
Does this really matter? The calendar can get crowded. There are going to be several meets that factor into selection for Pan Pacs and while a few names will change, I think it’s fair to assume most of the team will be similar to that of having a selection meet. It’s fun to beat up on the idiocy of USA Swimming at times, but does it really matter if we take a year off of selection meets and send a pre-selected team? I just can’t get too upset about this.
I really hate when USA swimming selects the team for major international meets a year in advance. But if they’re gonna do it, I’m glad they’re doing it for Pan Pacs, because Pan Pacs suck anyways.
Here’s hoping they host a proper nationals meet in 2027 to select the team for 2027 worlds.
This makes the most sense in allowing a longer training block for athletes to be fully prepared in 28. Can’t keep having a shortened training season every year with only 9 wks after spring champs meets and then only6 weeks til international competition. There may be some swimmers emerge in 2026 who don’t make 2026 world champs but they will be much better prepared for 28. Can’t keep shortening training block year after year. Steering made a wise and educated decision by coaches who put kids on international teams vs opinions on a message board by those who don’t put kids on international teams
Just learn to swim fast all the time
Wow so we’re going all the way back to pre Covid idiotic selection policies
Not that Pan Pacs is of the utmost importance for the USAS National Team but if that’s the case then why not try out something new
I can appreciate that they’re trying this on Pan Pacs instead of Worlds, but the principle is still dumb.
Not to jump to pessimistic conclusions here but if we’re embracing an attitude of “change nothing, reminisce on our glory days, and count on our talent pool to show up when it matters” then don’t be surprised if our butts get kicked on home soil in 2028
Hopefully I’m wrong.
Someone please point to me a single situation where USA Swimming has selected a senior international team off results from the year prior and ended up with the best version of the team. Lock in individual world champions if you want to weigh summer of 2025 results and make everyone else earn it at 2026 nationals.
Also why are they deciding this before filling Mintenko’s role? Shouldn’t this be something that person should be heavily involved in deciding how this is done? The more things change within this Mickey Mouse organization, the more they stay the same.
Here’s the reality: they’ve always been able to excuse this away with “whatever it’s fine, having a bad team is part of the process for excelling at the Olympics.”
They have no motivation to change.
I agree with you, but I’d rather have a pre-selected team for Pan Pacs than for 27 Worlds.
So in that regard, it seems like a win.
If it’s an either or scenario, Pan Pacs is definitely way preferable to 27 worlds. I like to imagine a world where we can actually have nice things though and just do selection meets for both.
If you’re a more experienced athlete like Ryan Murphy and wanted to take 6 months out of the water completely before building through the next year and then trying to be really sharp for the last 2 years of the quad, are you now in a situation where you feel like you have to be more ready for 2025 nationals or risk not making the top intentional team until 2027? On the flip side, maybe Erisman misses the top team next summer or only… Read more »