Top Swim Meets to Watch in 2026: Regional Championships, Short Course Worlds Highlight Calendar
The midway point between the Paris and Los Angeles Olympics will arrive in 2026, but this coming year will mark a rare one with no global long course championship meet. While almost all of the world’s top swimmers had last year’s Singapore World Championships circled on their calendar, this year will look much different. Instead, swimmers will target national and regional championship meets over the summer. After that, many big names will attend the Short Course World Championships in December.
The results this year will set the stage for the next long course championship meet in 2027, set for Budapest, and then the Olympic year beyond that. Here is a preview of the biggest events on swimming’s calendar.
1. NCAA Women’s Championships, March 18-21 — Atlanta
The quest for six consecutive national titles will be on as the Virginia Cavaliers descend on Atlanta this March. While accomplished sisters Alex and Gretchen Walsh have finished their collegiate eligibility, the Cavaliers return multi-time NCAA champion Claire Curzan, rising freestyle star Anna Moesch, two-time Olympian Katie Grimes and consistent performers such as Leah Hayes, Tess Howley and Aimee Canny to bolster their title hopes. Italian sprinter Sara Curtis is among the major additions to the roster.
Additionally, Stanford’s Torri Huske will race in her final NCAA Championships, hoping to win multiple individual titles and give the Cardinal a chance to take down Virginia. Other defending champions returning include 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 men will go for a repeat national title after last year’s down-to-the-wire, 19-point win over Cal. Hubert Kos is the leading returning swimmer for Texas after he won national titles in both backstroke events plus the 200 IM last year. The Longhorns also return 500 free and 400 IM NCAA champion Rex Maurer plus backstroke and medley swimmer Will Modglin. The Texas breaststroke group might be the best in the country, with World Championships team member Campbell McKean and transfer Baylor Nelson among the high-profile additions.
Florida’s Josh Liendo returns to cap off his marvelous college career that already includes six individual national titles. A 200 fly showdown between Luca Urlando and Ilya Kharun will be can’t-miss while Zalan Sarkany is aiming for his third consecutive win in the 1650 free.
Australia’s Kaylee McKeown — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
3. Australian Swimming Trials, June 8-13 — Sydney
Australia will pick its teams for a busy summer that includes the Commonwealth Games and Pan Pacific Championships. This selection meet will be the first since Ariarne Titmus officially retired, but the Aussies still have plenty of talent seeking a return to international waters. Kaylee McKeown, Mollie O’Callaghan, Cameron McEvoy and Meg Harris all won individual world titles last year while Kyle Chalmers remains one of the best swimmers in the world. Distance swimmer Lani Pallister had a breakout year in 2025 while Alex Perkins, Elizabeth Dekkers, Harrison Turner and Jenna Forrester were the country’s other individual medalists at Worlds.
4. Canadian Swimming Trials, July 6-9 — Montreal
Paging Summer McIntosh, entering her final season as a teenager after two years as the top female swimmer in the world. McIntosh has broken world records at the selection meet each of the past three years, and her efforts at this meet in 2025 marked one of the best single performances by any swimmer ever. McIntosh lowered global standards in the 400 free and both individual medley races while becoming the second-fastest swimmer ever in the 200 butterfly and 400 IM. Perhaps this will be the meet where she knocks off Liu Zige’s world record in the 200 fly.
5. Commonwealth Games, July 24-29 — Glasgow, Scotland
Swimmers from Commonwealth nations will compete at this event in late July, and the results typically matter to participating swimmers more than any other meet outside of the Olympics. This is the only event on the calendar where British swimmers are split up into their home nations, England, Scotland and Wales, and competitors from Australia, Canada and South Africa are typically in attendance. McIntosh and the Australians will highlight the women’s competition while Pieter Coetze, Duncan Scott and Adam Peaty are the biggest names expected to compete for the men.
6. U.S. National Championships, July 28-August 1 — Irvine, Calif.
The biggest domestic meet in the United States this year will have virtually no stakes, with USA Swimming already selecting its team for the Pan Pacific Championships based on 2025 results. However, many top Americans may choose to travel to Southern California and compete as they prepare for Pan Pacs in the same pool two weeks later.
Romania’s David Popovici — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
7. European Championships, July 31-August 16 — Paris
This will be the summer’s major competition for swimmers from Europe, a list that includes all three men who won multiple individual world titles in 2025. Two years after starring at a home Olympics, Leon Marchand will again seek to thrill the home crowd as he chases world records in multiple events. Fellow Frenchman Maxime Grousset should star in the sprint butterfly events while David Popovici targets historic numbers in the 100 and 200 free. Other world champions from 2025 expected 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 will be the target meet for top swimmers from the United States this season, with representative teams from Australia, Canada, Japan and other countries outside of Europe all converging on Irvine, less than two years before the Olympic swimming competition takes place just a bit north in Inglewood. The United States rolls out a deep, well-rounded women’s team led by Katie Ledecky, Gretchen Walsh, Kate Douglass, Torri Huske and Regan Smith, and a highlight of the competition is expected to come in the women’s freestyle relays as the Americans seek rare victories over Australia.
For the men, Pan Pacs will show the American team’s progress in rebuilding after a pair of lackluster performances at major international meets. Bobby Finke was the only swimmer to win individual gold in Paris before Luca Urlando was his team’s sole winner last year in Singapore. The Americans will be measured against strong international competition as well as times posted at other major meets around the world.
9. Asian Games, September 19-October 4 (all sports) — Aichi–Nagoya, Japan (swimming in Tokyo)
The swimming competition for this year’s Asian Games will take place at the Tokyo Aquatic Center, with the dates still to be announced. All Asian nations typically focus on thi meet as their main competition for the middle year of the quad. A rising men’s team from Japan is expected to shine on home soil, with the likes of Shin Ohashi, Tomoyuki Matsushita, Asaki Nishikawa and Tatsuya Murasa among the main players. China, meanwhile, will bring Pan Zhanle, Qin Haiyang, Li Bingjie and Tang Qianting on its team, and South Korea always has strong freestylers such as Hwang Sun-woo and Kim Woo-min.
10. Short Course World Championships, December 1-6 — Beijing
Another Asian-based competition will round out the year’s biggest events with six days of 25-meter global racing inside the famous Water Cube. This will be the first time a major swimming competition returns to Beijing since the 2008 Olympics. While we do not know yet which swimmers will opt to attend, the last edition 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 neutral athlete Miron Lifintsev.
