Canadian world record holder Josh Liendo confirmed to SwimSwam today that he will not be swimming at Pan Pacs this summer, prioritizing the Commonwealth Games instead.
Liendo, who broke the SCM 100 butterfly world record in October, is the latest in a line of male sprinters to choose to forego Pan Pacs. Australians Cameron McEvoy, Kyle Chalmers, and Matthew Temple also will not be racing in Irvine in August. Liendo’s withdrawal deals another blow to the sprint depth at the meet.
The two meets run just two weeks apart with the Commonwealth Games hosting swimming from Friday, July 24 to Wednesday, July 29 and Pan Pacs starting just 14 days later on Wednesday, August 12th.
Liendo told SwimSwam that the meets being so close together was one of the factors behind his decision to only race at one. He is also working an internship in Gainesville, where he trains at the University of Florida, this summer, and he wants to focus on his upcoming college graduation this fall.
He is coming off a very strong senior short course season at the University of Florida, where he set a new NCAA record in the 100 fly of 42.49 and won all three of his individual events at the NCAA Championships.
Canada announced their 12-person Commonwealth roster in October, of which Liendo is the only male individual Olympian, though Lorne Wigginton swam on Canada’s 800 freestyle relay in 2024.
Liendo will be one of the favorites to win multiple events this summer in Glasgow, including the 100 fly, though he will face steep competition from Temple, who finished just behind Liendo at last summer’s World Championships and currently holds the 4th fastest time in the world this season.
With Liendo not attending Pan Pacs, no athletes from last summer’s 100 butterfly ‘A’ final will be racing the event in Irvine.
Afraid to be out aured by Van (Diesel) Mathias
Are Pan Am Games still a thing?
I am beginning to think that many Commonwealth swimmers don’t want to come to the USA.
Commonwealth games is just way easier sell commercially.
Interesting when half of them live and train here ….
If she is to dominate the LA games, Summer needs to compete against the best, making Pan Pacs the meet to be at. The US team provides most of her toughest competition – Katie L, Regan S, Kate D, Emma W, Alex G, etc.
To do this, she first needs to qualify at CDN trials this week. lol
400 IM can be removed, only the clock for Summer!
It looks like there’s a strong chance the American men will take home several gold medals; the big question mark for me is the backstroke. Alexy (50/100 free), Hobson (200 free), Finke (1500 free), Mathias (50/100 breast), Casas (100 fly/200 IM), Foster (400 IM), Urlando (200 fly).
Shaine or McCarty in the 50 back feels like a safe bet.
It depends on whether Coetze competes at Pan Pacs. Backstrokers from Australia, Japan and Canada are not that strong either.
Anyone else concerned about Urlando? Has he raced since conference?
How big is the Canadian team for the Com games
6 women, 6 men: https://swimswam.com/canadas-2026-commonwealth-games-roster-highlighted-by-josh-liendo-missing-ilya-kharun/
Anyone who has the option to do Commonwealth Games should pick Commonwealth Games. That’s fairly obvious. Simply a more prestigious event whose demise has been greatly exaggerated.
But it was idiotic not to space Pan Pacs further apart.
When you look at who was the CEO of USA Swimming at the time, the arrogance is unsurprising.
Wellllll, the two meets were basically being planned simultaneously. Pan Pacs dates were announced after Commonwealth Games, but were likely chosen before Commonwealth Games dates were announced (remember that CGs were originally scheduled for March).
Would it have been much easier to move Pan Pacs at that point than CGs? Almost certainly. But 2 of the charter nations of Pan Pacs are also in the Commonwealth, and that apparently wasn’t enough to overcome the political burden of moving it. Given that most of the heads of those federations are no longer in their roles, I’m not sure we’ll ever get an answer to how that conversation went down, but we can certainly try!
I agree.
The lower standard of competition is also kind of additional selling point too.
It’s a meet where it’s easier to win/medal, the general public cares more, and you can turn that into more money from endorsements etc.
LEN moved European Swimming Championships in response to CG date announcement.
A lot of the Aussie swimmers are doing promotions for their sponsors in the lead up to Commonwealth Games and that’s part of the appeal .. they can’t be doing promotions by just going to pan pacs because that meet doesn’t have a lot of public attention
Also comm games offers a mini Olympic village type atmosphere so it’s good practice for LA28 and pan pacs is just a swim meet