McKenzie Siroky's hockey-to-swimming pivot leads to Pan Pacs

McKenzie Siroky won the 100-meter breaststroke at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine this August. The 21-year-old University of Tennessee junior also took silver in the 50-meter breaststroke, an event set for its Olympic debut in 2028.

Her performances at Team USA's biggest meet of 2026 established her as the top women's sprint breaststroker in the nation. Siroky's times in each event rank her as the second fastest swimmer in the world this year.

From the ice to the pool

Siroky's path to the podium is unprecedented. Just over three years ago, she was a committed ice hockey recruit for the University of Minnesota-Duluth. She made the full-time switch to swimming after her senior year of high school, taking a gap year to train for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials.

Her first long-course meet in July 2023 nearly ended the experiment. Racing in a 50-meter pool for the first time, she missed the Olympic Trials qualifying time in the 100m breaststroke preliminaries. She finished short of the cut. Distraught, she considered quitting.

A chance encounter changed her mind. While out for brunch, Siroky spotted a man wearing a USA Swimming shirt autographed by 1996 Olympic gold medalist Sheila Taormina. Taormina had been best friends with Siroky's late mother, Michele, who died of brain cancer in 2017. The shirt bore a message: "Never give up on your dreams!"

Siroky called Taormina, who advised a new race strategy. "Build through the race rather than try to sprint," she suggested. That evening, Siroky followed the plan and swam easily under the Trials standard. "Ever since then, I haven't doubted," Siroky told The Athletic.

A hockey player's mentality

Growing up near Detroit, hockey was Siroky's primary focus. She played on the boys' team at Stevenson High School and was invited to a Team USA Under-18 evaluation camp in 2021. Her former high school coach, David Mitchell, said she earned respect through hard work. "She was good around the net, had a scoring touch," Mitchell said.

That background shapes her approach in the pool. After winning the 100 breaststroke at Pan Pacs, she celebrated with a hockey player's enthusiasm. She threw her arms into the water, yelled "Let's go!" and flexed for her family. "I wanted to get out and rip a hockey celly, but I don't have a stick," she told reporters.

Her Tennessee coach, Matt Kredich, sees the connection clearly. "It's not hard to know that she's a hockey player," he said.

Building toward 2028

USA Swimming national team director Greg Meehan sees vast potential. "I think it's exciting just to see her results if you take it in a vacuum," Meehan said. "But I think when you really understand the results and how little background she has, her ceiling is almost unlimited."

With 2016 gold medalist Lilly King retired and 2021 champion Lydia Jacoby missing qualification in 2024, Siroky is positioned as the new face of American breaststroke. She is a contender for the 2028 U.S. Olympic team in individual events and as part of the 4x100 medley relay.

Coach Kredich emphasizes her rapid learning curve. "She has 10 percent or less of the experience of most of the people that she's competing against," he said. At Pan Pacs, she out-touched China's Tang Qianting, a three-time 2024 Olympic medalist, to win the 100m breaststroke gold. She later delivered a key relay split to help the U.S. Win the medley relay.

Siroky still keeps a hockey stick and gear in her Tennessee apartment. She occasionally visits a rink, recalling the sport where her heart felt happy. The discipline from the ice now fuels her in the water, as she carries the memory of her mother and a unique athletic pedigree toward an Olympic goal.