Pan Pacific Championships Night Two: McKenzie Siroky Surges to Gold in Final Meters of Women’s 100 Breaststroke
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.
U.S. swimmer Kate Douglass was the top seed coming into the meet, while China’s Qianting Tang took the top seed in the morning. Meanwhile McKenzie Siroky was just behind, looking to build on her strong performance at nationals two weeks ago at the same Wollett Aquatic Center in Irvine.
In the finals, Douglass clung to an early narrow lead.
But things changed at the turn.
Tang pulled slightly ahead of Douglass with her quick pace.
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.
Siroky got to the wall in 1:05.32, just out-touching Tang (1:05.46) and Japan’s Satomi Suzuki, who snagged the bronze medal at 1:05.65. Douglass finished fourth in 1:05.81.
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.
Siroky looked stunned as she saw the scoreboard, frozen for a few seconds before erupting in jubilance.
“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.”
Canada’s Alexanne LePage was fifth in 1:05.94.
