The U.S. has been the deepest nation in women’s backstroke for years, and Katharine Berkoff is now leading the way.
Berkoff broke her own American record to win the 50m back at the Pan Pacific Championships on Thursday, one day after upsetting world record holder Regan Smith to take the 100m back.
Berkoff clocked 26.90 seconds on Thursday in Irvine, California, taking seven hundredths off her American record. It’s the fourth-fastest time in history globally. She received her medal from her dad, Dave, who won his Olympic 100m back bronze exactly 32 years before his daughter did the same in Paris.
Berkoff, 25, spent years challenging Smith and Australian Kaylee McKeown before winning her first world title last July in the 50m back. The stroke 50s — backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly — make their Olympic debuts at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
SWIMMING: Results | Broadcast Schedule
Pan Pacs, the biggest meet of 2026 for swimmers outside Europe, continue Friday with preliminary heats at 1 p.m. ET and finals at 10 p.m., live on Peacock and NBCSN.
Also Thursday, Van Mathias won his second title in as many days, taking the men’s 100m breaststroke in 58.02 seconds, one hundredth off his American record.
Mathias, part of the U.S.’ mixed medley relay that broke the world record on Wednesday, is swimming at his first senior major international meet at age 25.
He retired for two years after finishing his NCAA career at Indiana, then returned last summer while balancing his job as director of operations for the Hoosiers swimming and diving program.
“First international meet, I mean it means so much to me,” he said on the broadcast. “It shows in the pool.”
McKenzie Siroky, who eschewed a Minnesota-Duluth hockey scholarship to become a full-time swimmer, won the women’s 100m breast in 1:05.32, knocking 32 hundredths off her personal best. It was the 21-year-old Siroky’s first career final in a major international meet.
The U.S. won the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay in 6:59.37, the sixth-fastest time in history. Australian took the women’s 4x200m free.
In the 400m individual medley, Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita held off American Carson Foster by 36 hundredths -- 4:06.75 to 4:07.11. At the Paris Olympics, Matsushita edged Foster for silver by four hundredths behind France’s Leon Marchand.
Summer McIntosh bagged her fifth major 400m IM title, clocking 4:28.01 to comfortably win by 3.49 seconds. McIntosh owns the world record of 4:23.65 and nine of the top 10 times in history.
The U.S. went one-two in the men’s 100m freestyle with Jack Alexy (47.14) and Patrick Sammon (47.62).
