Pan Pacific Swimming Championships

The Pan Pacific Swimming Championships is a long course swimming event first held in 1985.^[1] The meet was initially staged biennially (every odd year), to allow for an international championship-level meet in the non-Olympic and non-World Championships years.^[1] However, beginning with the 2002 championships, due to the changing of the World Championships from every four years (even year between Olympics) to every two years (every odd year), the meet is a quadrennial event, held in the even year between Summer Olympics.^[1]

History

The meet was founded by its four Charter nations: Canada, the United States, Australia and Japan. As part of the Charter, hosting of the meet is to rotate among these four nations, with the meet being held in Japan every other championship.

The meet was founded as an alternative to the European Championships, for those countries that could not swim in those championships. Initially, the meet was open to all countries that border the Pacific Ocean, giving the meet its name. This since has been expanded/opened to include other, non-European, countries wishing to participate (e.g. Brazil and South Africa).

The meet is considered to be one of the toughest international swimming competitions outside the Olympic Games, World Championships and European Championships, due in part to the presence of swimming power-house nationals like the United States and Australia, the first and second most medals winners, respectively.

Unlike the World Championships and Olympic Games, nations can enter as many people as they like in the preliminaries of each event (in most international meets, only two swimmers from each nation are permitted). However, only two swimmers per nation can qualify for the Championships' semi-finals and finals. Prior to FINA's creation of semi-finals in the late 1990s, a total of 3 swimmers per country could qualify for the final and consolation heats of an event, with no more than 2 swimmers per country in a final or consolation.

List of championships

Edition	Year	Location	Dates
1st	1985	Tokyo, Japan	August 15–18
2nd	1987	Brisbane, Australia	August 13–16
3rd	1989	Tokyo, Japan	August 17–20
4th	1991	Edmonton, Canada	August 22–25[2]
5th	1993	Kobe, Japan	August 12–15
6th	1995	Atlanta, USA	August 10–13
7th	1997	Fukuoka, Japan	August 10–13[3]
8th	1999	Sydney, Australia	August 22–29[4]
9th	2002	Yokohama, Japan	August 24–29[5]
10th	2006	Victoria, Canada	August 17–20[6]
11th	2010	Irvine, USA	August 18–22[7]
12th	2014	Gold Coast, Australia	August 21–25[1]

Note: The 1995 and 1999 editions served as the Swimming test events for the Olympic venues, for the next year's Games.

Medal table (1985–2014)

All-time Pan Pacific Championships medal table (Updated after 2014 Championships)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	259	178	129	566
2	Australia	89	124	100	313
3	Japan	25	42	63	130
4	Canada	16	43	70	129
5	China	5	10	12	27
6	South Africa	5	5	6	16
7	New Zealand	4	6	16	26
8	South Korea	4	2	1	7
9	Costa Rica	3	2	4	9
10	Brazil	2	3	7	12
11	Puerto Rico	1	0	1	2
12	Suriname	1	0	0	1
13	Venezuela	0	1	0	1
14	Chile	0	0	1	1
Totals		414	416	410	1240

Medalists

References

1. Queensland to host 2014 Pan Pacific Championships, published by Swimming Australia on 2012-05-11; retrieved 2012-05-11.
2. For the Record: 1991 Pan Pacific Championships; result listing published by Swimming World Magazine, October 1991 edition, p.52-54.
3. 1997 Pan Pacific Championships page from the USA Swimming website (usaswimming.org); retrieved 2012-05-11.
4. 1999 Pan Pacific Championships page from the USA Swimming website (usaswimming.org); retrieved 2012-05-11.
5. 2002 Pan Pacific Championships page from the USA Swimming website (usaswimming.org); retrieved 2012-05-11.
6. 2006 Pan Pacs results page from Omega Timing. Retrieved 2012-05-11.
7. 2010 Pan Pacs results page from Omega Timing. Retrieved 2012-05-11.