{"id":651085,"date":"2026-08-22T05:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=651085"},"modified":"2026-08-22T07:47:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T14:47:27","slug":"led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Led by Sam Short, Men&#8217;s 800 Freestyle Field in Pursuit of History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Led by Sam Short, Men&#8217;s 800 Freestyle Field in Pursuit of History<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 2026 season has brought renewed hope that super-suited records could finally be consigned to history.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Summer McIntosh<\/strong> harpooned the white whale that was <strong>Zige Liu\u2019s<\/strong> 200 fly world record for the last one on the women\u2019s side. <strong>David Popovici<\/strong> remains in search of the 200 freestyle mark on the men\u2019s side. The 200 backstroke mark of <strong>Aaron Peirsol<\/strong> is getting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/european-championships-hubert-kos-blasts-european-record-in-200-back-just-misses-legendary-wr-of-aaron-peirsol\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">its first real test in a generation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The ridiculous 800 free world record of<strong> Zhang Lin<\/strong> from the 2009 World Championships, though, remains an echelon above anything the world is capable of at the moment. But the 800 free pack is closing in.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sam Short<\/strong> won the 800 free <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/pan-pacific-championships-night-one-finals-sam-short-adds-800-free-gold\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on Wednesday night<\/a> at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, Calif. His time was 7:37.02, the sixth-fastest performance in history. He holds three of the top eight, including the national record and textile-best time of 7:36.73 he set in winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in July.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/sports\/pan-pacific-champs-prelims-day-1\/f97aa5f5-f95f-3bb7-a049-a89eb0507ce0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Watch on Peacock\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.omegatiming.com\/2026\/2026-pan-pacific-champs-live-results\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Meet Results<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/meet\/2026-pan-pacific-championships\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Swimming World Meet Page<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For a race whose top two performances have remained frozen in amber since before the first iPhone was globally available, that constitutes progress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s gotten really fast over the years,\u201d two-time 800 free Olympic medalist and Wednesday&#8217;s silver medalist <strong>Bobby Finke<\/strong> said. \u201cOver the years, it\u2019s probably one of the deepest events. All the freestyle guys are pretty tight, and they\u2019re just getting faster, which is good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Finke deserves a share of credit, his furious final-100 rallies at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 ushering in changes in how others have had to swim the race. The inclusion in the Olympic program for the first time in Tokyo has also incentivized more swimmers to prioritize what had been a middle ground between the 1,500 and 400 confined only to the World Championships.<\/p>\n<p>At those Tokyo Games, prelims brought a pair of 7:41s and five national records before Finke\u2019s American record of 7:41.87 won gold. That was a mile off of Lin\u2019s record, which seemed then set to spend another decade or more on the wall.<\/p>\n<p>But Finke\u2019s time would\u2019ve been fifth at Worlds in 2022, when he won gold with an American record of 7:39.36. It would\u2019ve been sixth at Worlds in 2023, a race that saw an Oceania record (Short), an American mark (Finke), a European record (<strong>Daniel Wiffen<\/strong>) and none of those win thanks to the 7:37.00 from <strong>Ahmed Hafnaoui.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Olympic record progressed to 7:38.19 for Wiffen in Paris. <strong>Ahmed Jaouadi<\/strong> of Tunisia <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/the-two-ahmeds-tunisian-distance-legends-jaouadi-and-hafnaoui-spur-each-other-to-ncaa-triumphs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pushed the frontier down<\/a> to 7:36.88 at Worlds in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>The standard is progressing everywhere. Wiffen\u2019s European record was broken first by <strong>Sven Schwarz<\/strong>, then by German teen <strong>Johannes Liebemann.<\/strong> Wiffen and <strong>Florian Wellbrock<\/strong> aren\u2019t done yet, even if their careers might start to shade toward the higher distances.<\/p>\n<p>Short was well aware on Wednesday what his European counterparts had achieved <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/flash-johannes-liebmann-takes-down-european-800-free-record\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in the morning&#8217;s 800 free final in Paris<\/a> and what times he was chasing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been probably the best year I\u2019ve ever put together,\u201d Short said. \u201cI beat the Europeans that swam early today. I was pretty fired up to try and do that. And I&#8217;m really excited to race them next year as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Short is at the vanguard of pushing it further. Lin\u2019s time remains a massive leap ahead. But the second-fastest swim in history was the runner-up at that meet, <strong>Ous Mellouli,<\/strong> the Tunisian going 7:35.27. That\u2019s next in Short\u2019s crosshairs, and a global reunion of the heads of the distance state next summer at Worlds in Budapest might to the trick.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think definitely the second time by Mellouli is very achievable, given the right race,\u201d Short said. \u201cI think if I was right next to the Germans, we could have all pushed each other as well. If I had an invisible wand right there, it&#8217;s easier said than done to push yourself in that last 200 when I knew I probably had the win wrapped up. So, given the right circumstance, definitely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Led by Sam Short, Men&#8217;s 800 Freestyle Field in Pursuit of History The 2026 season has brought renewed hope that super-suited records could finally be consigned to history. Summer McIntosh<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8367,"featured_media":650682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,122075,10],"tags":[136551,70617,128902,134034,72820,120079,138195,125410,93809],"class_list":["post-651085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-oceania","category-world","tag-2026-pan-pacific-championships","tag-2028-olympic-games-coverage-los-angeles","tag-ahmed-hafnaoui","tag-ahmed-jaouadi","tag-bobby-finke","tag-daniel-wiffen","tag-johannes-liebemann","tag-sam-short","tag-sven-schwarz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Led by Sam Short, Men&#039;s 800 Free Field in Pursuit of History<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sam Short won the 800 free on Wednesday night at the Pan Pacific Championships in the sixth-fastest performance in history.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Led by Sam Short, Men&#039;s 800 Freestyle Field in Pursuit of History\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sam Short won the 800 free on Wednesday night at the Pan Pacific Championships in the sixth-fastest performance in history.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-22T12:07:09+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-22T14:47:27+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sam-short-2026-Pan-Pacs-1504-Edit.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"750\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sportsdoctormd\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3\"},\"headline\":\"Led by Sam Short, Men&#8217;s 800 Freestyle Field in Pursuit of History\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-22T12:07:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-22T14:47:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/\"},\"wordCount\":680,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sam-short-2026-Pan-Pacs-1504-Edit.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2026 Pan Pacific Championships\",\"2028 Olympic Games Coverage - Los Angeles\",\"Ahmed Hafnaoui\",\"Ahmed Jaouadi\",\"Bobby Finke\",\"Daniel Wiffen\",\"Johannes Liebemann\",\"Sam Short\",\"Sven Schwarz\"],\"articleSection\":[\"-Home Slider\",\"Oceania\",\"World\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/\",\"name\":\"Led by Sam Short, Men's 800 Free Field in Pursuit of History\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sam-short-2026-Pan-Pacs-1504-Edit.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-22T12:07:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-22T14:47:27+00:00\",\"description\":\"Sam Short won the 800 free on Wednesday night at the Pan Pacific Championships in the sixth-fastest performance in history.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sam-short-2026-Pan-Pacs-1504-Edit.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sam-short-2026-Pan-Pacs-1504-Edit.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":750,\"caption\":\"Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Led by Sam Short, Men&#8217;s 800 Freestyle Field in Pursuit of History\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"description\":\"The Global Leader in Aquatic News\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Swimming World\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg\",\"width\":1799,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"Swimming World\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3\",\"name\":\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Matthew De George - Senior Writer\"},\"description\":\"Matthew De George is the Americas Correspondent for Swimming World Magazine. He's the author of two books on swimming, Duels in the Pool and Pooling Talent. He's also the assistant sports editor for the Delaware County Daily Times in Pennsylvania, where he covers high school and college sports as well as the Philadelphia Union. His work has also appeared in The Guardian and The Athletic.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.swimmingworld.com\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/sportsdoctormd\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/mattdg\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Led by Sam Short, Men's 800 Free Field in Pursuit of History","description":"Sam Short won the 800 free on Wednesday night at the Pan Pacific Championships in the sixth-fastest performance in history.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Led by Sam Short, Men's 800 Freestyle Field in Pursuit of History","og_description":"Sam Short won the 800 free on Wednesday night at the Pan Pacific Championships in the sixth-fastest performance in history.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/","og_site_name":"Swimming World","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","article_published_time":"2026-08-22T12:07:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-08-22T14:47:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":750,"url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sam-short-2026-Pan-Pacs-1504-Edit.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@sportsdoctormd","twitter_site":"@swimmingworld","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/"},"author":{"name":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3"},"headline":"Led by Sam Short, Men&#8217;s 800 Freestyle Field in Pursuit of History","datePublished":"2026-08-22T12:07:09+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-22T14:47:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/"},"wordCount":680,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sam-short-2026-Pan-Pacs-1504-Edit.jpg","keywords":["2026 Pan Pacific Championships","2028 Olympic Games Coverage - Los Angeles","Ahmed Hafnaoui","Ahmed Jaouadi","Bobby Finke","Daniel Wiffen","Johannes Liebemann","Sam Short","Sven Schwarz"],"articleSection":["-Home Slider","Oceania","World"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/","name":"Led by Sam Short, Men's 800 Free Field in Pursuit of History","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sam-short-2026-Pan-Pacs-1504-Edit.jpg","datePublished":"2026-08-22T12:07:09+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-22T14:47:27+00:00","description":"Sam Short won the 800 free on Wednesday night at the Pan Pacific Championships in the sixth-fastest performance in history.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sam-short-2026-Pan-Pacs-1504-Edit.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sam-short-2026-Pan-Pacs-1504-Edit.jpg","width":1000,"height":750,"caption":"Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/led-by-sam-short-mens-800-freestyle-field-in-pursuit-of-history\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Led by Sam Short, Men&#8217;s 800 Freestyle Field in Pursuit of History"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","name":"Swimming World","description":"The Global Leader in Aquatic News","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization","name":"Swimming World","url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/SWorld_BLKBKG-1.jpg","width":1799,"height":900,"caption":"Swimming World"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld","https:\/\/x.com\/swimmingworld","https:\/\/instagram.com\/swimmingworldmag\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SwimmingWorldSPI"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/aff20a2913cc03a514d0343a4c8788f3","name":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cfca9cef277cfa1a9f4150330ba69a2?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","caption":"Matthew De George - Senior Writer"},"description":"Matthew De George is the Americas Correspondent for Swimming World Magazine. He's the author of two books on swimming, Duels in the Pool and Pooling Talent. He's also the assistant sports editor for the Delaware County Daily Times in Pennsylvania, where he covers high school and college sports as well as the Philadelphia Union. His work has also appeared in The Guardian and The Athletic.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.swimmingworld.com","https:\/\/x.com\/sportsdoctormd"],"url":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/author\/mattdg\/"}]}},"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick","source_text":"","source_url":""},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sam-short-2026-Pan-Pacs-1504-Edit.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p56Jja-2Jnn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651085"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":651161,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651085\/revisions\/651161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}