Commonwealth Games Roster a First Look at Canada’s Plan for Busy 2026
Swimming Canada is used to the balance between international events in off summers. In 2022, it weighed a postponed World Championships with the Commonwealth Games, a meet of lingering prestige if not one that always attracts the deepest fields.
In 2026, the question for Canadian swimmers is how to navigate the Commonwealth Games and the Pan Pacific Championships. Last week’s roster release for the former offers a glimpse, with program leaders like Summer McIntosh and Ilya Kharun eschewing the Commonwealth Games in what signals a focus on Pan Pacs.
Both meets offer unique slates of competition at the midpoint of the Olympic quadrennial. The Commonwealth Games bring the Canadians into contact with British swimmers representing their Home Countries, plus a delegation of Aussies. Pan Pacs is a dry run for a meet in California against an American A team as well as Australian and Japanese swimmers. The four-day meet may not quite mimic the nine days of the 2028 Los Angeles Games, but some of the staging will preview the meet that matters most two years later.
The Commonwealth Games roster shows that the focus is on Pan Pacs. Canada’s team in Glasgow, Scotland, will feature Josh Liendo and Kylie Maase among six Olympians, mostly relay qualifiers, and a generally youthful squad as a way to gain experience. It leaves in reserve the likes of Taylor Ruck, Mary-Sophie Harvey, Kharun and McIntosh for Pan Pacs, which Canada will likely target with an as-yet unselected A team.
A number of Canadians did both competitions in 2022, among them Harvey, Masse, Liendo and Finlay Knox. Maggie Mac Neil swam only relay events at the 2022 World Championships and a fuller slate at Commonwealths, adding the 100 fly title there to her haul of medals in that event. McIntosh, in the summer that she turned 16, swam the 400 free and both IMs at Commonwealths, then the 400 free, 200 fly and 400 IM at Worlds as a way to flex her program depth.
Many of Canada’s biggest names in 2022 – among them Sydney Pickrem, Penny Oleksiak and Ruck – swam only at Worlds. Pan Pacs appears to be that major meet this time around.
Each of the major powers involved, short of the Americans and Japanese, will have to make choices in a busy summer, the first since 2020 without an Olympics or World Championships. The Commonwealth Games come first on the calendar, with swimming in Glasgow July 24-29. The European Swimming Championships take place in Paris Aug. 10-16, splitting the British attentions. Pan Pacs are Aug. 12-15 in Irvine.
In 2022, there was more than a month between competitions, with Worlds in Budapest ending June 25 and Commonwealths starting July 29 in Birmingham, England. The travel from Glasgow to Irvine also is considerably more onerous for the Canadians and Aussies trying to do both.
