IRVINE, Calif. – Eight current and former Thunderbirds took to the water at the 2026 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships last week, contributing to four medal wins and a number of other great performances while competing against some of the top swimmers in the world.
Team Canada had their most successful Pan Pacific Championships since 1997, earning 13 medals which was the third-most of any country behind only the United States and Australia. The only Canadian man to win multiple medals was former UBC standout Blake Tierney, who claimed the first individual international gold of his career in the Men's 100m Backstroke on the opening day of the event with a time of 53.18 seconds.
He later also earned silver in the 200m Backstroke (1:56.29), finishing just behind Japan's Yumeki Kojima and ahead of Canadian teammate Ethan Ekk. Tierney ended the week as one of four Canadians overall to claim more than one medal, along with Taylor Ruck, Summer McIntosh and Mary-Sophie Harvey.
The other Thunderbird medallists came from relay races, beginning with Finlay Knox and Ingrid Wilm who joined forces with Ruck and Oliver Dawson in the Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay. That team finished in third place (3:43.22), before
Emma O'Croinin claimed bronze as part of Canada's Women's 4x200m Freestyle Relay team the next night. O'Croinin teamed with McIntosh, Harvey and Brooklyn Douthwright to do so, as the quartet managed to hold off China with a time of 7:52.74, less than half a second ahead of fourth place.
Knox finished fourth in two other relay races – the Men's 4x200m Freestyle and 4x100m Freestyle. The latter also included T-Bird
Yuri Kisil, whose best individual performance came in the Men's 50m Freestyle where he finished seventh (22.19), in a race where first through eighth were separated by less than a second.
The other Thunderbirds racing for Canada were
Aiden Kirk and
Raben Dommann, who each came seventh in the Men's 800m Freestyle (8:03.24) and Men's 100m Backstroke (55.01), respectively.
In addition to the Team Canada contingent, UBC star
Kayla Sanchez competed for the Philippines, coached by Thunderbirds head coach
Derrick Schoof. While she didn't medal, Sanchez broke her own national record in the Women's 100m Freestyle (53.46), finishing in sixth place in both that event and the 50m Freestyle (24.86).
