USA Swimming released the attendance numbers from the 2026 U.S. National Championships (late July) and 2026 Pan Pacific Championships (mid-August), two championship events that took place at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center in Irvine, California only two weeks apart.

It should be noted that for the U.S. Nationals, with a span of 5 days of events with two sessions each, there were 18,701 total attendees (swimmers, coaches, and spectators), as according to Rich Perelman of The Sports Examiner.

That calculates to be roughly 3,740 attendees per day, or 1,870 per session. 809 swimmers, according to the meet results, were entered in the meet.

In regards to the Pan Pacs, that only brought a bit less than half of the swimmers to The Sports Examiner and it's reporting says that for 4 days of events with two sessions each, there were a total of 13,439 spectators (1,680 per session/ 3,360 per day). 275 swimmers were entered in the competition.

For an event of this caliber that requires bringing in temporary seating the capacity of the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center is 4,000 compared to the standard capacity of only about 700 (Concordia University Irvine). This would be considered quite impressive especially compared to previous times that the meet has been held there. However they did not track attendance then.

Last year's National Championships to decide the World Championship team had about 4,700 spots available at Indiana University Natatorium. It has not yet been reported exactly how many spectators took part in that event. While the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials saw an attendance of over 285,000 spectators over 17 sessions at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, this meet will not occur at that venue until 2028.

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Tanu