By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
Earlier today, Swimming Canada announced their 2026 Commonwealth Games roster, and national record holder Ilya Kharun was absent from the 12-person roster.
Kharun told SwimSwam that he and his coach decided to focus on the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships instead. He is not the first high-profile swimmer to make this decision, with Summer McIntosh choosing to skip the meet as well.
Next year’s Commonwealth Games have been through a series of changes from the typical meet. The saga started in July of 2023 when the intended host, Victoria, Australia, pulled out due to the rising costs of the Games that could have exceeded $5 billion USD ($7 billion AUD). This was more than twice the original budget for the event and it could have continued to grow.
This was a huge jump from the $1.5 billion AUD the 2022 Birmingham Games cost to put on, and caused the state of Victoria to pay $243 million ($380 million AUD) as a consequence for withdrawing.
At the time, the Commonwealth Games Federation said they would be willing to delay the Games by a year to accommodate a new host, but in September of 2024, it was announced that Glasgow, Scotland would be hosting a significantly pared-back event in July of 2026.
Only 10 sports will be contested at next year’s Games, half the record 20 sports the 2022 iteration of the competition saw. The last time only 10 sports were contested at the Commonwealth Games was in 1994.
The event will host 3×3 Basketball, Artistic Gymnastics, Athletics, Bowls, Boxing, Judo, Netball, Swimming, Track Cycling, and Weightlifting, as well as Para competitions for Basketball, Athletics, Swimming, Track Cycling, and Powerlifting.
The event will take place from July 23rd-August 2nd, 2026, coming to a close just 10 days before the Pan Pac Championships, which will begin in Irvine, California on August 12th.
Swimmers from Commonwealth countries are faced with a decision about their participation in these meets. The competition at the Pan Pac Championships will likely be steeper than the Commonwealth Games, but many athletes have a sense of national pride when it comes to Commonwealth competition.
Australian Olympian Kaylee McKeown recently discussed this decision in the SwimSwam Podcast. She mentioned the internal conflict between “making Australia proud” by performing well at the Commonwealth Games and the competition at Pan Pacs which is what Swimming Australia is treating as their “benchmark meet” for the 2026 season, saying she has still not made a final decision with her coach about which meet she will focus on.
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