6 Stories to Watch, All The Links You Need For The 2014 Pan Pacific Championships

2014 PAN PACIFIC SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Thursday, August 21- Monday August 25th. August 21-24 pool, 25th open water
• Gold Coast, Australia
• Local time: Prelims 10:00am, Finals 7pm. Open Water August 25th 10:00am
• Meet Website
• Our Coverage
• Live Results 
• Event Schedule
• Psych Sheets/Start List
• Live Webcast

PRELIMS & FINALS TIMES IN DIFFERENT TIME ZONES

EASTERN TIME (New York, Toronto)- Prelims: 8:00 pm, Finals: 5:00 am

PACIFIC TIME (California, Vancouver)- Prelims 5:00 pm, Finals 2:00 am

MOSCOW- Prelims: 4:00 am , Finals 1:00 pm

BEIJING – Prelims: 8:00 am, Finals: 5:00 pm

LONDON – Prelims: 1:00 am, Finals 10:00 am

TELEVISION BROADCAST SCHEDULE

Canada– Canadians will be able to view a daily broadcast on Sportsnet One at 8:00-8:30 pm ET.

USA- Saturday August 23rd 3:30-4:30 ET on NBC. Sunday August 24th 3:30-4:30 ET on NBC.

Australia-

Thursday, August 21, from 7.30pm. Live and exclusive on ONE.
Friday, August 22, from 7.30pm. Live and exclusive on ONE.
Saturday, August 23, from 7.30pm. Live and exclusive On TEN.
Sunday, August 24, from 7.30pm. Live and exclusive on ONE.

This year’s Pan Pacific Championships in Gold Coast, Australia will be one to remember as there are multiple key performances that will be remembered in swimming history.

The big storyline here is Michael Phelps‘ return to international competition as he’s entered in a few events here, including the 100m fly where he’s currently ranked first in the world, that will shape how the rest of the competition views him as he attempts to comeback after coming out of retirement following the London Olympics.

The freestyle sprint battles should be intense as the Australian sprinters are some of the fastest in the world with the likes of Cameron McEvoy and James Magnussen. Nathan Adrian of the United States will have his hands full with the Australian men, and the American team will also be contending with them in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

The relay is very important on the international scene as it shows the true depth of swimming in that country. The Australians and the Americans should be battling it out, neither team wanted to settle for silver.

Katie Ledecky, Katie Ledecky, Katie Ledecky. Ledecky has been on fire this season which includes breaking three world records making her the first woman since Janet Evans to hold the 400, 800, and 1500m freestyle records all at once. Ledecky broke the 400m freestyle most recently at US Nationals and will be entered in the 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1500m freestyles at Pan Pacs.

If she wasn’t fully rested at national, there’s a very good chance that one world record or even all three might be at jeopardy.

Besides the Phelps comeback, there’s reigning FINA World Swimmer of the Year Ryan Lochte, who’s on his way back from a knee injury that cost him well over half a year. He had a solid U.S. Nationals and is probably the favorite in the 200 IM, as well as a contender in the 100 fly and a relay piece in the 100 free.

Outside of those real ‘headlining’ storylines, here are a few more narratives to keep an eye on over the next few days:

1. Three-headed Japanese breaststroking attack: Japan enters not one, not two, but three of its national record-holders in the women’s breaststrokes. Olympic star Satomi Suzuki owns the 50 and 200 marks. Kanako Watanabe has been on fire this year and stole the 100 in June. Meanwhile Rie Kaneto is tied with Suzuki atop that 200 breast list. Any of the three have a real shot to medal in Australia, and the best battle of the breaststroke events might be in prelims as the three fight for two Japanese finals spots.

2. Missy Franklin’s back in the backs, but will her back hold her back? The big Missy Franklin storyline this summer has been the World Champs star’s return to backstroke races after a college season focused on freestyle. But now Franklin has some injury issues to deal with after leaving a team practice with back spasms in Australia this week. Is the injury a minor blip on the radar for one of the world’s tougher swimmers? Or will it affect Missy and her battles with Australians Emily Seebohm and Belinda Hocking?

Author’s note: a thousand apologies for that cringe-inducing “back” headline. Sometimes you just can’t stop yourself.

3. Can anyone stop the Campbells? Australian sisters Cate and Bronte Campbell have been on a tear this season. The two hold top seeds in the 50 and 100 free races this weekend and form the backbone of the World Record-holding 4×100 free relay for the Aussies. If anyone can break up that pair in either race, it’s got to be considered a major accomplishment. Americans Franklin and Simone Manuel are probably the best bets.

4. Is Park okay? South Korea’s biggest-ever swimming icon Park Taehwan has scratched the 200 free on day 1, one of his two best events and the one in which he’s taken the past two Olympic silver medals. It’s unclear if this represents an injury, travel difficulties or something else for Park, but he’ll now have just the 100 and 400 frees to focus on. Park has been trying to expand his event repertoire this season, and may be targeting Asian Games as his major focus meet, since he can likely swim (and final in) a wider range of events.

5. The always-present backstroke battle: With how deep the world is in men’s backstroke right now, it seems this race makes our storylines in nearly every meet. But the level of talent present make the backstrokes continually unpredictable. In Australia we’ll see the loaded American contingent of Olympic gold medalist Matt Grevers, Olympic silver medalist Nick Thoman and World Champs silver medalist David Plummer go up against Japan’s Ryosuke Irie, who won silver in the 200 back in London and leads the world in that event this year. Also in the mix are Australian national record-holder Mitch Larkin and rising American college star Ryan Murphy.

6. Can Cochrane rule the distance frees? Tunisian Olympic medalist Ous Mellouli is reportedly having travel issues, and has scratched out of the 1500 free on day 1. That takes away the looming showdown between Mellouli and Canada’s top distance man Ryan Cochrane, an Olympic rematch after Cochrane won the silver medal over Mellouli in London. If Mellouli can’t make it for any of his events, it’ll leave Cochrane as the clear man to beat in the 400, 800 and 1500. He’ll have tough battles in all three, though, with teammate Eric Hedlin in the mile, American Michael McBroom in the 800 and Australia’s David McKeon and Japan’s Kosuke Hagino in the 400.