By Mark Wild on SwimSwam
This article is the third of three articles in this series (maybe there will be a fourth depending on the Asian Games results)
Women’s Individual Events Men’s Individual EventsWhile Junior Pan-Pacs are still ongoing, the majority of the end-of-season championship meets have concluded. For some, this period is a rest, a break, and a reset before the start of the short-course season, whether in yards or meters. For us here at SwimSwam, the news cycle never ends, and we continue to keep up with the latest information.
However, we do get a little introspective and reminiscent (maybe it’s just me), and with Pan-Pacs, European Championships, and the Commonwealth Games concluded, it’s time to look back on the results and see who actually came out on top. It’s been eight years since the world’s best swimmers were split like this, as the last time these three meets occurred in the same calendar year was in 2018. The Pan-Pacs were slated for 2022 but were postponed when World Aquatics, then FINA, opted to hold a World Championships in 2022, after the 2021 World Championships were postponed to 2023.
There is no perfect way to compare the times from the meets, as each had very different paths to qualification and varying formats. The Commonwealth Games had Great Britain split into its constituent nations and allowed three swimmers from each nation to contest the final. Pan-Pacs had no limit on the number of swimmers per nation in the event, but limited the final to just two per nation. In contrast, the European Championships had four swimmers per nation in prelims, and a limit of two per semifinal and final. Pan-Pacs had no semifinals, but contested B-Finals. Commonwealth Games had semifinals, but only for events under 200 meters, while the European Championships had semifinals for events 200 meters and down.
There is no obvious way to compare the results, but we are going to try nonetheless. We are going to follow the World Championship format of only two swimmers per nation in the final, and while several nations, Australia, Great Britain, and Canada, to name a few, competed at multiple meets, we will only use each nation’s fastest performance in the event. All three meets held the same number of men’s and women’s relays but varied in the number of mixed relays. Pan-Pacs only contested the mixed 4×100 Medley Relay, while Commonwealth Games added the mixed 4×100 Free Relay. European Championships contested the aforementioned two as well as the mixed 4×200 Free Relay. We have included both mixed 400 relays below, but for the purposes of the medal table, we will only include the mixed medley relay, which was contested at all three meets.
The Pan-Pacs dominated the relays table, with all but one of the gold medals going to teams present in Irvine. The USA had the incredible pair of Kate Douglass and Gretchen Walsh on the winning women’s 400 free and medley relays as well as on the world-record-setting Mixed Medley relay. The US men also had a strong showing in the freestyle relays, posting the 5th-fastest time in the 4×100 free relay and the 6th-fastest time in the 4×200 free relay.
Douglass led off the 4×100 free relay in 51.69, nearly breaking the World record (she owns the WR in SCM), and then with Walsh splitting 52.23 on the 2nd leg, Torri Huske‘s 52.79 and Simone Manuel‘s 52.61 helped seal the win in a new championship and American record of 3:29.32, a time that stands as the 3rd fastest performance of all time, trailing only the Australian’s pefromances from Fukuoka and from Paris.
Douglass was a little off on the medley relay, anchoring in 52.23, but she can be forgiven as this result came at the end of a compact four-day meet, as well as in the same session, where she took silver in the 200 breast, just after demolishing her hours-old world record in the 50 free. Earlier in the meet, she anchored the mixed medley relay in 51.01, nearly joining the sub-51 club, to help the USA take over half a second off the World Record, going from 3:37.43 to 3:36.70. Joining her on that relay were Will Modglin (53.40), Van Mathias (57.30), and Walsh (54.99).
The men’s performances in the longer of the two relays are not that surprising, as Luke Hobson and Gabe Jett had the fastest two times across the meets in the individual 200 free (Yes, I am well aware that Leon Marchand led off in 1:43.76), but it’s the 4×100 free relay where they really shone. The USA placed no swimmer on our hypothetical 100 free podium; Jack Alexy‘s 47.14 winning time at Pan-Pacs would have been 4th, but his anchor of 46.78, along with Patrick Sammon‘s 46.98, helped the US go 3:09.01, nearly a full second ahead of the rest of the field.
The Americans’ weaknesses also showed as the women took 2nd in the 800 free relay and the men fell off the podium in the 400 medley relay. The women would have had a tough time overcoming the behemoth that is the Australian free relays, but with no Mollie O’Callaghan there, there certainly was a chance. O’Callaghan did swim in the Australians’ winning (42.53) Commonwealth Games relay, but was obviously hampered by her injury, splitting 1:56.19 on the anchor leg. Despite losing her, the Australians improved on that result and won Pan-Pacs in 7:42.40.
The American men finished 5th overall in the medley relay, despite their 3:29.06, which set a new Championship record at Pan-Pacs. Placing ahead of them were the Neutral Athlete B team from the European Championship, who won the title in 3:28.67, as well as the 2nd-place Italians (3:28.86) and the 3rd-place French squad (3:29.03). The US were also beaten by the Australians, albeit by a very different Australian team, as Henry Allan and Flynn Southam did not make the journey from Glasgow to Irvine, with the Australians going 3:28.71 at the Commonwealths and 3:30.15 at the Pan-Pacs. Their Pan-Pacs time placed 2nd to the US’s, but as stated above, we only used their fastest performances from the three meets.
In discussing these results with SwimSwam’s resident data scientist, Barry Rezvin, he noted that the Americans’ medley relay result is not as dire as it seems. Yes, they failed to medal in the event (in our hypothetical rankings), but you can only really race against those in the pool with you. Also, with the expected inclusion of Ilya Kharun (or Caeleb Dressel) on the fly leg, the US could hypothetically improve by nearly a second, as Luca Urlando split 50.51 on the relay at Pan-Pacs. So while they could be in 8th place after the backstroke, if those woes continue, the power and form of Mathias, Kharun/Dressel and Alexy could pull the USA back to the forefront of this event, as this most recent relay was only .39 seconds off of the NAB winning time.
The Australians’ differing rosters also affected their results in the 4×100 free relay, as Southam’s and Kyle Chalmers‘ inclusion on the Commonwealth Games roster yielded them a difference of .08 on their Pan-Pacs time, 3:09.49 to 3:09.57. One would expect that losing two of their fastest sprinter would have more of an effect, but Harrison Turner, the reigning 200 fly World Championship bronze medalist, turned a 47.94 split at the Commonwealth Games into a 46.99 anchor leg at Pan-Pacs.
No nation medaled in all of the relay events, as the USA missed out on the men’s 4×100 medley relay and the Australians on the women’s 4×100 relay, the latter of which is certainly a result of the loss of both O’Callaghan and Kaylee McKeown from the relay. Their best time, their 3:54.25 from the Commonwealth Games, would have placed 5th overall, behind the USA’s winning time from Pan-Pacs (3:50.43) as well as the entire podium from the European Championship, Great Britain (3:53.50), Italy (3:53.60) and the NAB team (3:53.79).
Britain, which won just two medals last summer at Worlds in Singapore, had a very strong showing, especially in the women’s relays. While the men slipped two spots back to bronze in the 4×200 free relay, the women stepped up in the 4×200 free relay and the medley. The team of Freya Colbert, Abbie Wood, Leah Schlosshan, and Freya Anderson won the European Championships in a time of 7:45.93, a nearly six-second improvement upon the quartet’s 5th-place finish from last year (7:51.87). In the medley relay last summer, they placed 8th in the final in a time of 3:57.95, but thanks to a 1:03.75 from Scotland’s Angharad Evans, the fastest breaststroke split ever, the Brits cut over four seconds to win the European Championships and our hypothetical silver in a mark of 3:53.50.
Relay Medal Table
Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total 1 USA 5 1 0 6 2 Australia 1 5 0 6 3 NAB 1 0 0 1 4 Great Britain 0 1 2 3 5 Italy 0 0 2 2 6 Netherlands 0 0 1 1 6 Hungary 0 0 1 1 6 France 0 0 1 1Combined Medal Table
Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total 1 USA 13 11 7 31 2 Australia 8 9 4 21 3 Great Britain 3 3 2 8 4 NAB 3 2 1 6 5 Hungary 3 0 3 6 6 China 2 1 0 3 7 France 1 3 3 7 8 Italy 1 0 8 9 9 Canada 1 2 1 4 10 Netherlands 1 1 2 4 11 Germany 1 1 1 3 12 Japan 1 1 1 3 13 South Africa 1 1 0 2 14 Czech Republic 1 0 1 2 15 Romania 1 0 1 2 16 Greece 0 2 0 2 17 Sweden 0 1 0 1 17 Belgium 0 1 0 1 17 Denmark 0 1 0 1 17 Ukraine 0 1 0 1 17 Spain 0 1 0 1 22 Poland 0 0 1 1 22 Ireland 0 0 1 1 22 Argentina 0 0 1 1 22 NAA 0 0 1 1 22 Switzerland 0 0 1 1All Three Meets
For the data nerds out there
Women’s Golds Silvers Bronzes 4×100 Freestyle PP – USA (Douglass, Walsh, Huske, Manuel) – 3:29.32 CG – Australia (Harris, Jack, Perkins, O’Callaghan) – 3:31.40 EU – Netherlands (van Wijk, de Jong, van Kalmthout, Steenbergen) – 3:31.89 PP – Australia (Harris, Perkins, Jansen, Wunsch) – 3:31.11 CG – England (Okaro, Colbert, Schlosshan, Anderson) – 3:35.66 EU – Italy (Menicucci, Curtis, Tarantino, Mao) – 3:33.19 PP – Canada (Ruck, Harvey, Tigert, Fack) – 3:36.44 CG – South Africa (Canny, Meder, Gallagher, Nel) – 3:38.67 EU – NAB (Klepikova, Kuznetsova, Gaifutdinova, Manokhina) – 3:33.69 4×200 Freestyle PP – Australia (Miller, Pallister, Casey, Jansen) – 7:42.40 CG – Australia (Pallister, Casey, Miller, O’Callaghan) – 7:42.53 EU – Great Britain (Colbert, Wood, Schlosshan, Anderson) – 7:45.93 PP – USA (Gemmell, Peplowski, Erisman, Ledecky) – 7:43.10 CG – England (Colbert, Wood, Schlosshan, Anderson) – 7:50.10 EU – Hungary (Pádár, Ábrahám, Késely, Ugrai) – 7:49.09 PP – Canada (Harvey, McIntosh, O’Croinin, Douthwright) – 7:52.74 CG – New Zealand (Fairweather, Deans, Thomas, Tapper) – 7:51.94 EU – NAB (Misharina, Diakova, Surushkina, Klepikova) – 7:49.13 4×100 Medley PP – USA (Berkoff, Siroky, Walsh, Douglass) – 3:50.43 CG – Australia (Anderson, Toohey, Perkins, Harris) – 3:54.25 EU – Great Britain (Cox, Evans, MacInnes, Colbert) – 3:53.50 PP – Australia (Anderson, Ramsay, Perkins, Harris) – 3:55.09 CG – Scotland (Shanahan, Evans, MacInnes, Davis) – 3:57.02 EU – Italy (Curtis, Pilato, Gastaldi, Menicucci) – 3:53.60 PP – China (Wan, Tang, Yu, Cheng) – 3:56.33 CG – South Africa (Nel, Canny, Gallagher, Meder) – 3:58.58 EU – NAB (Gaifutdinova, Chikunova, Klepikova, Manokhina) – 3:53.79 Men’s Golds Silvers Bronzes 4×100 Freestyle PP – USA (Guiliano, Sammon, Lasco, Alexy) – 3:09.01 CG – Australia (Southam, Taylor, Turner, Chalmers) – 3:09.49 EU – Hungary (Kós, Szabó, Németh, Milák) – 3:10.03 PP – Australia (Taylor, Jack, Sommerville, Turner) – 3:09.57 CG – England (Mills, Guy, Shepherd, Whittle) – 3:11.69 EU – NAB (Giryov, Kukushkin, Shchegolev, Kornev) – 3:10.12 PP – Japan (Murasa, Mitsunaga, Matsumoto, Matsumoto) – 3:13.53 CG – South Africa (Coetze, Brooks, van Renen, le Clos) – 3:13.99 EU – Croatia (Hribar, Nenadić, Sivec, Dragoja) – 3:11.08 4×200 Freestyle PP – USA (Hobson, Shackell, Sammon, Jett) – 6:59.37 CG – Australia (Short, Turner, Sommerville, Taylor) – 7:01.47 EU – Great Britain (Richards, McMillan, Guy, Scott) – 7:01.52 PP – Australia (Giuliani, Taylor, Hawke, Short) – 7:01.10 CG – England (Shepherd, Dean, Guy, Litchfield) – 7:04.98 EU – France (Marchand, Largeron, Cristofini, Fuchs) – 7:02.23 PP – Japan (Murasa, Matsumoto, Kuroda, Matsushita) – 7:02.74 CG – Wales (Richards, Jones, Bird, Melbourne-Smith) – 7:09.59 EU – Germany (Märtens, Sorgius, Baschnitt, Jahn) – 7:02.28 4×100 Medley PP – USA (Modglin, Mathias, Urlando, Alexy) – 3:29.06 CG – Australia (Allan, Williamson, Temple, Southam) – 3:28.71 EU – NAB (Kolesnikov, Kozhakin, Minakov, Kornev) – 3:28.67 PP – Australia (Swinburn, Williamson, Temple, Turner) – 3:30.15 CG – England (Morgan, Ramsay-Peaty, Mildred, Mills) – 3:30.68 EU – Italy (Ceccon, Martinenghi, Razzetti, D’Ambrosio) – 3:28.86 PP – Japan (Takehera, Ohashi, Mitsunaga, Murasa) – 3:30.99 CG – South Africa (Coetze, Houlie, le Clos, van Renen) – 3:31.13 EU – France (Ndoye-Brouard, Aitkaci, Marchand, Grousset) – 3:29.03 Mixed Golds Silvers Bronzes 4×100 Medley PP – USA (Modglin, Mathias, Walsh, Douglass) – 3:36.70 WR CG – Australia (Anderson, Williamson, Temple, Harris) – 3:40.46 EU – France (Moluh, Aitkaci, Grousset, Wattel) – 3:39.64 PP – Australia (Anderson, Williamson, Temple, Harris) – 3:39.30 CG – South Africa (Coetze, Houlie, Gallagher, Canny) – 3:42.61 EU – Netherlands (de Waard, Corbeau, Niewold, Steenbergen) – 3:40.92 PP – Canada (Wilm, Dawson, Knox, Ruck) – 3:43.22 CG – Scotland (Ward, Evans, MacInnes, Scott) – 3:43.70 EU – NAB (Kolesnikov, Prigoda, Klepikova, Kuznetsova) – 3:41.52 4×100 Freestyle PP – Not contested CG – Australia (Southam, Chalmers, Jack, Harris) – 3:19.36 EU – NAB (Kornev, Giryov, Klepikova, Manokhina) – 3:19.95 PP – Not contested CG – England (Mills, Whittle, Anderson, Colbert) – 3:23.91 EU – Netherlands (Niewold, Belmon, van Wijk, Steenbergen) – 3:20.09 PP – Not contested CG – Wales (Richards, Jones, Sutton, Taylor) – 3:24.33 EU – Italy (D’Ambrosio, Ceccon, Curtis, Menicucci) – 3:20.80 4×200 Freestyle PP – Not contested CG – Not contested EU – Great Britain (McMillan, Richards, Colbert, Anderson) – 7:24.13 PP – Not contested CG – Not contested EU – Germany (Märtens, Baschnitt, Roth, Tobehn) – 7:25.43 PP – Not contested CG – Not contested EU – NAB (Vekovishchev, Giryov, Klepikova, Misharina) – 7:26.35Read the full story on SwimSwam: Combining the 2026 Championship Meets – Relays and Total Medal Count: USA Surge to Top of the Pack
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