The 2026 Pan Pacific Championships will be held in Southern California, according to the minutes from the latest USA Swimming Board of Directors meeting last month.
The 2026 Pan Pacs will be the first edition of the quadrennial meet since 2018. The four Pan Pac charter nations — Australia, Canada, Japan, and the United States — agreed to cancel the 2022 meet back in 2020 because the international swimming calendar was getting too crowded with major international meets due to pandemic-induced delays.
Canada was set to host the 2022 Pan Pacs and, even after its cancellation, was expected to host the 2026 edition of the meet. However, an official host city was never named by Swimming Canada. Canada has only hosted Pan Pacs twice in the 38-year history of the meet, the last time being the 2006 edition in Victoria.
USA Swimming has not yet responded to SwimSwam’s request for comment on where in Southern California the 2026 Pac Pacs will be held. For events of this scale, the go-to facility in recent years has been the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center in Irvine, which hosted the 2010 Pan Pacs.
Founded as an alternative to the European Championships, the first Pan Pac meet was held in 1985. The meet was initially open to all nations bordering the Pacific Ocean, but has since been expanded to include other non-European countries such as Brazil and South Africa. Pan Pacs was a biennial meet until 2002, when it switched to the even year between each Summer Olympics.
On Tuesday, USA Swimming and Swimming Canada released statements addressing the location change.
“We are grateful to Swimming Canada for giving us the opportunity to host the 2026 edition of the Pan Pacific Championships in Los Angeles,” said USA Swimming CEO and President Tim Hinchey. “This meet will be an unprecedented chance for the best in the world to compete two short years before America hosts its first domestic Summer Olympic Games in 30 years. USA Swimming and the American swimming community look forward to welcoming our friends and greatest competitors from the Pan Pac charter nations.”
“Swimming Canada is pleased to support the move of the 2026 Pan Pacs from Canada to USA Swimming and Los Angeles,” said Swimming Canada Acting CEO Suzanne Paulins. “The Los Angeles 2028 Games being so close to home is a tremendous opportunity for our national team members. We see the value in moving Pan Pacs to Los Angeles, and look forward to this being a step on the road to making LA2028 the best Games possible.”
Realistically, is there still room for Pan Pacs now that FINA has a World Champs every 5 minutes?
In 2026 Pan Pacs will be the main LC event for non European swimmers.
Comm Games? If it happens? Lol
The 2026 Comm Games won’t happen. But even if it does, it won’t involve the US or Japan or Brazil. So the Pan Pacs will be a much better meet, involving Australia, Canada, NZ and South Africa who are Commonwealth countries, plus the US, Japan, Brazil and others.
As I said, in 2026 the Pan Pacs will be the main LC event for non European swimmers.
2010 Pan Pacs in Irvine:
Nathan Adrian swept both 50/100 free
Michael Phelps swept both 100/200 fly
Ryan Lochte swept both 200/400 IM
Kosuke Kitajima swept both 100/200 breast
Ryan Cochrane swept the distance 800/1500 free
Women’s freestyle had different winner for each event, same goes for backstroke.
Phelps didn’t make finals in the 400 IM as Lochte and Clary went really fast in prelims. That was an awesome meet.
I find it ridiculous that Canada can not 🚫🚫🚫 hold the games there? WTF is going on Swimming Canada? You are too incompetent and can’t get your act together? You are telling Canadians and swimming fans around the world 🌎🌎🌎 that you have LOUSY swimming facilities? It’s embarrassing Canada? We believed in you and you have let the swimming world 🌎🌎🌎 down.
Canada is hosting in 2030. The countries (🍁 included) all wanted to compete in the states in the lead-up to 2028 in LA so they can give a dry run to training camps, travel, time adaptions.
I’m guessing it’s more because the US is hosting the Olympics 2028
If you’re this mad about Pan Pacs don’t ask Australia what happened with the Comm Games lol
How many times have Australia hosted Commonwealth Games and how many times have Canada hosted Commonwealth Games?
Australia 5 and Canada 4. Canada was supposed to host in 1942, which would have made 5 and 5.
Virtually every athlete that competed in the Gold Coast was complementary. Australia always hosts incredible competitions.
When is the venue for the Olympics going to be ready?
I think its a temp pool built on the baseball field and not a permanent pool. So June 2028 would be my guess.
The McDonald’s Swim Stadium was completed one year out, but it was permanent. It will be the warm up pool in 2028 and the competition pool will be on what is currently the practice field for football. The LSC and LAOOC held a dry run a year out, but don’t believe that can happen with the current plans. One of the first experiences with the temp pools was the 5 lane 50 meter pool on the other practice field. Now, our Trials will be in a temp facility! Incredible progress…
Can we stop with the Woollett Center events already? This is not an ideal facility for national level events, let alone international events. Summer Juniors this year was a complete disappointment. Seating was extremely tight, there was absolutely no shade over the spectator section, concessions were across the complex, there was nowhere to interact with college coaches or sponsors. I understand the allure of SoCal, but there are many better options. USA Swimming needs to do better.
Well hopefully they can fix some of these problems with the new pool. I always hated the parking myself and the evening finals with the late afternoon sun beating down on you. They also jacked up the price this last summer.
you’re right. They should host it at the East Los Angeles College Swim Stadium
Only the best — once upon a time!
I have mostly the same complaints about the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre but Swimming Australia seem to love it. Too bad if it rains, is really windy or really hot- and one of these usually apply there.
100% agreed. To add, the facility hasn’t come up with a solution for the “arc shape” the backtroke flags make when it becomes moderately windy. If you’re in a center lane, 5 yards from the wall becomes 3 yards.
Due to this, several people at Masters Nationals this past spring broke or sprained fingers. Unacceptable.
That’s the nature of swimming outdoors. So unless you propose hanging the flags from a 25y steel rod, there will be some wind that must be accounted for.
I was pretty unimpressed with the experience there at USMS Nats this past spring. The pools were dated, seating was less than great for the size of the facility, parking was an utter s-show, and so on.
I understand Pan Pacs and other big international level meets aren’t nearly as big as USMS Nats, but even for a meet half the size of USMS Nats I’d think it’d still be a less than ideal facility.
I ripped into the facility in the post-event survey for USMS Nats. The locker rooms are wholly inadequate for large events, the warm-up space was about half of what it needed to be for an event that size, and there was nowhere to escape the sun and heat.
Ditto. That was by far my most scathing post-event survey, way worse than even Indy in 2018.
Interact with coaches outside of the facility.
Belmont wya
The neighborhood would have a fit.
I swam in the Belmont pool and thought Mission Viejo is a better pool. Sure, there is better seating for people to watched meets at the Belmont pool.. When I swam as a kid the Irvine pool didn’t exist. In fact that is why Irvine or Mission Viejo got more meets than Bemont throughout the years. In fact the new Bemont from what I read has less seating than the old one.
Coincidentally: https://www.ocregister.com/2023/10/30/irvine-plans-to-add-new-competition-pool-to-woollett-center/
I laughed a bit at the idea of “hiring an architect” for a 50m pool. It’s a rectangle, in which one competition direction is 50m, and either 8 or 10 lanes, which would require a 25y or 25m width, plus some bulkheads, and a depth of at least 7 feet (preferably 9-10’). Let me know who I can give my address to so they can mail me my check…
… obviously, indoor spaces like locker rooms and meeting areas and meet ops need to be designed. And someone needs to plan for afternoon sun, so some good sun shades need to be installed.
So the things an architect does?
This made me laugh.
Need to hire someone with creative, winning ideas, not just a contender.
It should be 50m+bulkheads x 25m … 8 lanes is not the international standard