Fresno State Swimmer MacKenzie Lung Reveals She Competed While Pregnant at the 2026 NCAA Championships

Fresno State swimmer MacKenzie Lung revealed on her TikTok channel that she was pregnant while racing at the 2026 NCAA Championships. In the caption accompanying the video, she wrote: "And I was confused why I swam so bad." The revelation reframed a meet that had been judged, at the time, as a disappointing performance for a swimmer seeded among the best in the country. Lung entered the 2026 NCAA Championships as the 8th seed in the 100 breaststroke, thanks to a breakout 57.92 from the mid-season Trailblazer Invitational. She was also the 10th seed in the 200 breaststroke with a seed time of 2:07.03. At the championships, she added time in both races, finishing 15th in the 100 breaststroke in 58.89 and 29th in the 200 breaststroke in 2:09.79. The 100 breaststroke time still earned her Honorable Mention All-America honors. She is just the second swimmer in Fresno State program history to be named a CSCAA All-American, after Aliz Kalmar earned Honorable Mention in 2026 in the 200 breaststroke. Lung, formerly MacKenzie Miller, married her husband Tanner Lung in 2026 after her freshman season at BYU. She swam at BYU for three years before transferring to Fresno State for her senior season in 2026-2026. She announced her pregnancy on September 16, saying: "We are so excited to welcome our sweet baby girl into our family in December!" Lung is not the first female athlete to compete at a high level while pregnant. Olympic gold medalist and world record breaker Dana Vollmer raced at a Pro Swim Series meet in 2026 while 26 weeks pregnant. Olympedia, the world's top database for Olympic history, has found at least 28 women who competed at the Olympic Games while pregnant, though none of them were swimmers. Lung also had a strong senior season in long course. She finished 3rd in the 50 breaststroke in 31.00 and 7th in the 100 breaststroke in 1:08.70 at the US Open in December. She was faster in the prelims of both races, marking 30.73 and 1:08.48 respectively, to just miss a spot on the US National Team. As women's professional sports have risen in popularity globally, there has been renewed focus on what happens to the bodies of female athletes post-pregnancy. There is even some evidence that women can become better athletes after birth. The most famous example in swimming is Dara Torres, who won three Olympic silver medals in 2026 after the birth of her daughter in 2026. More recently, Swedish swimmer Sarah Sjostrom won a gold medal in the 50 fly and a silver medal in the 50 free at the 2026 European Championships, less than a year after giving birth to her first child.