Regional Champs, Short Course Worlds

Top Swim Meets to Watch in 2026: Regional Championships, Short Course Worlds Highlight Calendar

The halfway level between the Paris and Los Angeles Olympics will arrive in 2026, however this coming 12 months will mark a uncommon one with no international lengthy course championship meet. While virtually the entire world’s prime swimmers had final 12 months’s Singapore World Championships circled on their calendar, this 12 months will look a lot totally different. Instead, swimmers will goal nationwide and regional championship meets over the summer season. After that, many huge names will attend the Short Course World Championships in December.

The outcomes this 12 months will set the stage for the subsequent lengthy course championship meet in 2027, set for Budapest, after which the Olympic 12 months past that. Here is a preview of the most important occasions on swimming’s calendar.

1. NCAA Women’s Championships, March 18-21 — Atlanta

The quest for six consecutive nationwide titles can be on because the Virginia Cavaliers descend on Atlanta this March. While completed sisters Alex and Gretchen Walsh have completed their collegiate eligibility, the Cavaliers return multi-time NCAA champion Claire Curzan, rising freestyle star Anna Moesch, two-time Olympian Katie Grimes and constant performers similar to Leah Hayes, Tess Howley and Aimee Canny to bolster their title hopes. Italian sprinter Sara Curtis is among the many main additions to the roster.

Additionally, Stanford’s Torri Huske will race in her ultimate NCAA Championships, hoping to win a number of particular person titles and provides the Cardinal an opportunity to take down Virginia. Other defending champions returning embody Texas’ Jillian Cox and the Stanford duo of Caroline Bricker and Lucy Bell.

2. NCAA Men’s Championships, March 25-28 — Atlanta

The University of Texas males will go for a repeat nationwide title after final 12 months’s down-to-the-wire, 19-point win over Cal. Hubert Kos is the main returning swimmer for Texas after he gained nationwide titles in each backstroke occasions plus the 200 IM final 12 months. The Longhorns additionally return 500 free and 400 IM NCAA champion Rex Maurer plus backstroke and medley swimmer Will Modglin. The Texas breaststroke group could be the most effective within the nation, with World Championships staff member Campbell McKean and switch Baylor Nelson among the many high-profile additions.

Florida’s Josh Liendo returns to cap off his marvelous school profession that already consists of six particular person nationwide titles. A 200 fly showdown between Luca Urlando and Ilya Kharun can be can’t-miss whereas Zalan Sarkany is aiming for his third consecutive win within the 1650 free.

3. Australian Swimming Trials, June 8-13 — Sydney

Australia will decide its groups for a busy summer season that features the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific Championships. This choice meet would be the first since Ariarne Titmus formally retired, however the Aussies nonetheless have loads of expertise in search of a return to worldwide waters. Kaylee McKeown, Mollie O’Callaghan, Cameron McEvoy and Meg Harris all gained particular person world titles final 12 months whereas Kyle Chalmers stays top-of-the-line swimmers on the planet. Distance swimmer Lani Pallister had a breakout 12 months in 2025 whereas Alex Perkins, Elizabeth Dekkers, Harrison Turner and Jenna Forrester had been the nation’s different particular person medalists at Worlds.

4. Canadian Swimming Trials, July 6-9 — Montreal

Paging Summer McIntosh, coming into her ultimate season as a young person after two years as the highest feminine swimmer on the planet. McIntosh has damaged world data on the choice meet every of the previous three years, and her efforts at this meet in 2025 marked top-of-the-line single performances by any swimmer ever. McIntosh lowered international requirements within the 400 free and each particular person medley races whereas turning into the second-fastest swimmer ever within the 200 butterfly and 400 IM. Perhaps this would be the meet the place she knocks off Liu Zige’s world document within the 200 fly.

5. Commonwealth Games, July 24-29 — Glasgow, Scotland

Swimmers from Commonwealth nations will compete at this occasion in late July, and the outcomes sometimes matter to collaborating swimmers greater than some other meet outdoors of the Olympics. This is the one occasion on the calendar the place British swimmers are break up up into their residence nations, England, Scotland and Wales, and rivals from Australia, Canada and South Africa are sometimes in attendance. McIntosh and the Australians will spotlight the ladies’s competitors whereas Pieter Coetze, Duncan Scott and Adam Peaty are the most important names anticipated to compete for the lads.

6. U.S. National Championships, July 28-August 1 — Irvine, Calif.

The greatest home meet within the United States this 12 months could have just about no stakes, with USA Swimming already deciding on its staff for the Pan Pacific Championships based mostly on 2025 outcomes. However, many prime Americans might select to journey to Southern California and compete as they put together for Pan Pacs in the identical pool two weeks later.

7. European Championships, July 31-August 16 — Paris

This would be the summer season’s main competitors for swimmers from Europe, a listing that features all three males who gained a number of particular person world titles in 2025. Two years after starring at a house Olympics, Leon Marchand will once more search to thrill the house crowd as he chases world data in a number of occasions. Fellow Frenchman Maxime Grousset ought to star within the dash butterfly occasions whereas David Popovici targets historic numbers within the 100 and 200 free. Other world champions from 2025 anticipated to compete are Germany’s Lukas Martens, Italy’s Simone Cerasuolo, Hungary’s Hubert Kos, Germany’s Anna Elendt and Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte.

8. Pan Pacific Championships, August 12-15 — Irvine, Calif.

This would be the goal meet for prime swimmers from the United States this season, with consultant groups from Australia, Canada, Japan and different international locations outdoors of Europe all converging on Irvine, lower than two years earlier than the Olympic swimming competitors takes place only a bit north in Inglewood. The United States rolls out a deep, well-rounded ladies’s staff led by Katie Ledecky, Gretchen Walsh, Kate Douglass, Torri Huske and Regan Smith, and a spotlight of the competitors is predicted to come back within the ladies’s freestyle relays because the Americans search uncommon victories over Australia.

For the lads, Pan Pacs will present the American staff’s progress in rebuilding after a pair of lackluster performances at main worldwide meets. Bobby Finke was the one swimmer to win particular person gold in Paris earlier than Luca Urlando was his staff’s sole winner final 12 months in Singapore. The Americans can be measured towards sturdy worldwide competitors in addition to instances posted at different main meets world wide.

9. Asian Games, September 19-October 4 (all sports activities) — Aichi–Nagoya, Japan (swimming in Tokyo)

The swimming competitors for this 12 months’s Asian Games will happen on the Tokyo Aquatic Center, with the dates nonetheless to be introduced. All Asian nations sometimes give attention to thi meet as their important competitors for the center 12 months of the quad. A rising males’s staff from Japan is predicted to shine on residence soil, with the likes of Shin Ohashi, Tomoyuki Matsushita, Asaki Nishikawa and Tatsuya Murasa among the many important gamers. China, in the meantime, will deliver Pan Zhanle, Qin Haiyang, Li Bingjie and Tang Qianting on its staff, and South Korea at all times has sturdy freestylers similar to Hwang Sun-woo and Kim Woo-min.

10. Short Course World Championships, December 1-6 — Beijing

Another Asian-based competitors will spherical out the 12 months’s greatest occasions with six days of 25-meter global racing inside the famous Water Cube. This would be the first time a significant swimming competitors returns to Beijing for the reason that 2008 Olympics. While we have no idea but which swimmers will choose to attend, the final version of Short Course Worlds featured multi-gold-medal performances from Americans Gretchen Walsh and Regan Smith, Canada’s Summer McIntosh, China’s Qin Haiyang, Switzerland’s Noè Ponti and impartial athlete Miron Lifintsev.