The 2014 Pan Pac Championships are complete, and with all medals counted, the Americans have come away with 40 total medals, including 14 gold, to once again lead the medals table.
Those 40 medals come out of a maximum 62 winnable medals. While that shows a good density of success, the medal total was down from the last edition of this meet in 2010. There, the Americans won 25 golds, 15 silvers, and 7 bronze medals for 47 total in the pool – including many more golds.
That’s equally as illustrative of the improved depth of Japan, and an Australian team that is heading toward a peak, plus an American team that was heavily reliant on rookies and other relative newcomers.
Of the United States’ 14 medals, 9 came from the women’s team and 5 were won by their men. The overall counts were split pretty evenly, with 21 for the women and 19 for the men.
The United States has topped the medals table at Pan Pacs every year since 1999, when the Australians led by Susie O’Neill, Ian Thorpe, Michael Klim, Grant Hackett, and Simon Cowley won 13 gold medals to the Americans’ 12.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States |
14 | 12 | 14 | 40 |
| 2 |  Australia |
10 | 8 | 8 | 26 |
| 3 |  Japan |
7 | 8 | 4 | 19 |
| 4 |  Brazil |
1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 5 |  Canada |
1 | 1 | 5 | 7 |
| 6 |  South Korea |
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 |  New Zealand |
0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 8 |  China |
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 34 | 34 | 34 | 102 | |
Heather Seletto
This person needs to get over himself. Naturally the U.S.A. will win the most medals of all and that is fine, but don’t crow because Australia was beaten by the U.S.. The U.S.A. has something like 300,000,000 people…Australia 22,000,000 and the Australians were only 4 gold medals behind. Not a bad effort, if the blinkers are removed.
I raise my glass to Australia for showing what a little country can do with limited talent (numbers wise). Respectable results for most countries for sure, but they lost their biggest challenge of all, beating their “Little Country Syndrome”, whereas their unfounded inferiority complex affects everyone, & eats at the efforts of the entire Australian team. If they don’t beat the USA, or more importantly, don’t win gold in every race, down deep they consider themselves failures, instead of appreciating each & every individual or team effort for the greatness they were. To Australia it’s the ‘all almighty gold medal count’, & nothing else that’s important. Such a pity. Anything less than gold is taken as a national disgrace in… Read more »
Another thing to notice, that could be taken as a positive or negative for Team USA, was how hit or miss they were. Some of the swimmers like Clary, Ledecky, Runge, and Jaeger, swam either as expected or better than expected. Others like Franklin, Pelton, Bootsma, Lochte, McBroom, etc. did not have a great meet by any means. This is a positive thing when looking at how “on” everyone on the Australian team was swimming, with the exception of Magnussen. Also a positive thing because the Americans know what areas they need to improve on and how to press forward after unexpectedly bad swims.
Lochte , not a great meet ? u must be blind or kidding yourself here . He puts on the 2d best 200 IM in the world this year , pretty decent 200 free relay split , a solid 100 fly ! if that’s not enough for u considering his recovery , that …. i am speechless . He has hold team Usa many times in LC and SC world championships ( 8 medals in Istambul in 2012 ) and is having fun , enjoying racing against Phelps again . I give him a 8/10 score for his races so far .
I had doubts at one point that he would even be healthy enough to compete this summer. So in that sense Lochte has had a very good last few weeks.
No way Newswim it isn’t a 4:1 ratio, the pool of people (no pun intended) is significantly more in the USA… Swimming Australia is still made up of people from our general population and unless you have significantly more people in an older demographic the ratios are similar..(In fact only 12.8% of all people as of August 25, 2014 are over 65, 27.3% of all Americans are under 20) Your argument holds no water.. Whoops there I go again..
The 4 to 1 ratio is based on the respective memberships of Swimming Australia (100,000) versus USA Swimming (400,000 or maybe a bit higher now). That is the “pool” from which they develop talent and from which medals are won.
You can argue, and I would agree, that Swimming Australia has done a much better job on recruiting people to the sport of competitive swimming than USA swimming.
You’re kidding yourself Mike, with a population of 318,622,000 so you should win more bloody medals.. Only 4 more gold though Mike.. Only 4 more…
“Only 4 more gold though Mike.. Only 4 more…”
Mike’s trumpeting is a bit inane. However, it remains to be seen if in reality Australia is that close to the US in the larger scheme of things. Will the margins be as tight next year in Russia? Was this a fleeting mirage or a genuine portent of things to come? The last two major comps, the Olympics and Worlds, had the US on 16 golds to 1 gold (London) and 15 golds to 3 golds (Barcelona). So do you believe in the short space of a year Australia has suddenly flipped a switch and is on the verge of challenging or even overtaking the US? Has the gap closed that… Read more »
For an “off year” for most American stars, not actually bad. I think they have the depth when it comes down in Rio. I really do believe that we will see more new emerging talents other than Katie-Missy-Ryan-Michael on the rise for Team USA next year.
25 down to 14 golds is a significant drop in 4 years .
In Gross Medal Production Per Person –
Without counting the 15 million plus illegal aliens USA is 315,000,000 / 46 . Australia is 23,000,000/ 26 . This production efficiency is 1 medal for every 7 million Americans & 1.125 medals for every 1 million Australians .
As elsewhere we just have to be more economical . We could take on the whole USA if you could excise DC ( ie Katie ) to their own nation. Plus they should take Baltimore with them .
Then bring it on 🙂
This is not a contest between the USA versus Australia populations/countries. It is really a contest between Swimming Australia versus USA Swimming. The US does hold a demographic advantage but it is more like 4 to 1 not 15 to 1. Still an “up” performance by the Australians and, except for the young US female swimmers, a “down” performance for the US men. The good news for the USA is that RIO is still 2 years away and there is time for some of the young US male swimmers to mature.
I prefaced this with ‘Gross Medal Production Per Person ‘ . This is obviously a pun on GPP .- Gross Production Per Person .
The kicker demonstrates just how strong just Katie / NBAC is . Besides that if you excised DC & Surrounds , you could keep your taxes.
Where is Jubal Early when we need him?
The USA should win the medal tally every year really.
Having a population of 314 million to Australia 23 million it’s quite the advantage.
The Aussies did well to be only 4 gold short from equaling.
They have some talent on the rise, look forward Rio is gonna be good.