For as long as Katie Ledecky has dominated — dating back to her first of nine Olympic gold medals in 2012 at age 15 — she has yet to swim in a major international meet on home soil.
That changes this week in Irvine, California, which hosts the Pan Pacific Championships from Wednesday through Saturday, live on Peacock and NBCSN.
Ledecky leads the American team at the biggest international meet to be held in the U.S. since 2010, when Irvine also hosted Pan Pacs.
Pan Pacs are held every four years — in the only year without an Olympics or World Championships in a 50-meter pool — and are for swimmers from non-European nations. The Europeans have their own continental championships this month.
These will be the first Pan Pacs since 2018 after COVID-19 disrupted the swimming calendar.
Traditionally, the U.S. is challenged at Pan Pacs by longtime rival Australia, plus swimmers from Canada, China, Japan, Brazil and South Africa.
Katie Ledecky vs. Summer McIntosh, Lani Pallister
The most anticipated head-to-heads this week involve Ledecky and her two biggest rivals — Canadian Summer McIntosh and Australian Lani Pallister.
Ledecky and McIntosh are set to face off in one individual event at Pan Pacs — the 400m freestyle on Friday. They also met in that event at the Olympics or World Championships each of the last five years, ever since McIntosh made her Olympic debut in Tokyo at age 14.
Ledecky bettered McIntosh in 2021, 2022 and 2023, but the Canadian moved ahead at the 2024 Paris Olympics, then won the world title in 2025.
Ledecky is also entered in the 1500m free on Wednesday and the 800m free on Saturday. She has never lost a final in those events in major international meets, racking up 23 total titles among the Olympics, worlds and Pan Pacs.
But at last year’s worlds, Pallister touched just 36 hundredths of a second behind in the 800m free — the smallest margin of victory of those 23 Ledecky titles.
Pallister’s mom, Janelle, a 1988 Olympian, was the medal presenter for the women’s 1500m free at the 2014 Pan Pacs in Gold Coast, Australia, where Ledecky broke the world record for the third of six times.
Bobby Finke, Sam Short renew U.S.-Australia rivalry
The best male distance swimmers from the U.S. and Australia are also set to duel in the 800m free (Wednesday) and 1500m free (Saturday).
At the Paris Olympics, Bobby Finke’s clutch world record swim in the 1500m kept the U.S. from being shut out of individual men’s swimming golds. It also helped push the U.S. past Australia in swimming golds at those Games — eight to seven in the end.
Sam Short can punch back for the Aussies at Pan Pacs. Short won a medal of every color in the 400m, 800m and 1500m frees at the 2023 Worlds, but was set back by health issues both leading up to the 2024 Olympics and during the 2025 Worlds.
This year, Short is the world’s fastest swimmer in the 800m free and the fourth-fastest in the 1500m free. He trails three Germans in the latter, so he’s the top seed at Pan Pacs with no European swimmers.
Gretchen Walsh, Kate Douglass on world record watch
Kate Douglass and Gretchen Walsh, training partners at the University of Virginia, already traded a world record this year. More could be on the way this week.
Walsh owns the 16 fastest times in history in the 100m butterfly (which is Friday at Pan Pacs), plus the second-fastest time in history in the 50m fly (Wednesday at Pan Pacs) — eight hundredths off Swede Sarah Sjostrom’s world record. The 50m fly makes its Olympic debut in Los Angeles
Back on June 28, Walsh broke the world record in the 50m freestyle — nine days after Douglass had broken it. The 50m free is Saturday at Pan Pacs, with both Walsh and Douglass among the entries.
Also on Saturday at Pan Pacs is the 200m breaststroke, which is Douglass’ Olympic gold medal event. She is the second-fastest woman in history in the 200m breast.
Van Mathias leads new swim stars
Maybe the most interesting new name at Pan Pacs is the director of operations for the Indiana Hoosiers swim team.
That’s Van Mathias, who retired after his last NCAA Championships in 2023, returned in 2025 (squeezing in training with his job) and this spring broke the American records in the 50m and 100m breaststrokes, events he didn’t swim regularly until his senior year in Bloomington.
Now Mathias will swim with a U.S. national team cap for the first time since the 2018 Junior Pan Pacs.
On the women’s side, watch out for McKenzie Siroky. The 21-year-old originally committed to Minnesota-Duluth for hockey, then switched to swimming at Tennessee after spending just one year in the pool full-time in high school.
She’s now the top U.S. female sprint breaststroker, ranking second in the world in 2026 in the 50m and third in the 100m.
