{"id":650840,"date":"2026-08-13T20:31:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T03:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=650840"},"modified":"2026-08-13T22:26:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T05:26:59","slug":"pan-pacific-championships-night-two-mckenzie-siroky-surges-to-gold-in-final-meters-of-womens-100-breaststroke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/pan-pacific-championships-night-two-mckenzie-siroky-surges-to-gold-in-final-meters-of-womens-100-breaststroke\/","title":{"rendered":"Pan Pacific Championships Night Two: McKenzie Siroky Surges to Gold in Final Meters of Women’s 100 Breaststroke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pan Pacific Championships Night Two: McKenzie Siroky Surges to Gold in Final Meters of Women’s 100 Breaststroke<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

With their prelim times less than a half second apart, the women’s 100 breaststroke at the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships was an anticipated showdown – and it turned out as few expected.<\/p>\n

U.S. swimmer Kate Douglass<\/strong> was the top seed coming into the meet, while China’s Qianting Tang<\/strong> took the top seed in the morning. Meanwhile McKenzie Siroky<\/strong> was just behind, looking to build on her strong performance at nationals two weeks ago at the same Wollett Aquatic Center in Irvine.<\/p>\n

In the finals, Douglass clung to an early narrow lead.<\/p>\n

But things changed at the turn.<\/p>\n

Tang pulled slightly ahead of Douglass with her quick pace.<\/p>\n

Then it was the long stroke of Siroky that gradually pulled her into contention – then passed everyone for her first international medal – a gold one.<\/p>\n

Siroky got to the wall in 1:05.32, just out-touching Tang (1:05.46) and Japan’s Satomi Suzuki,<\/strong> who snagged the bronze medal at 1:05.65. Douglass finished fourth in 1:05.81.<\/p>\n

The race was still a half second between the trio – this time a quartet – but it wasn’t the expected order of finish, making it all the more exciting.<\/p>\n

Siroky looked stunned as she saw the scoreboard, frozen for a few seconds before erupting in jubilance.<\/p>\n

“It’s just unreal to look at two years ago having really my first long-course meet to how much I’ve learned in the past two years and been able to take those skills that I’ve learned in those little moments to piece together a race like today,” Siroky said. “I think God puts pretty big goals in my mind, and I think as long as you believe fully that they’re achievable, you just have to trust in the Lord, and those things will fall into place. And I think through all the past years, I’ve trusted that all the hard times, all the good times, all the bad times, the days I’ve struggled, I know that it’s part of a bigger plan that I can’t see right now. So I always believed going into this meet that this was something I could do, and I think just fully believing and putting my heart into something every day in training and practice.”<\/p>\n

Canada’s Alexanne LePage<\/strong> was fifth in 1:05.94.<\/p>\n