World Championships, Day 7 Finals: Katie Ledecky Out-Lasts Lani Pallister, Summer McIntosh to Win 800 Free for Seventh Time
The streak is alive for Katie Ledecky in the 800 freestyle. The 27-year-old American widely considered the greatest female swimmer ever had won six world titles in the 16-lap race, one of them particularly close, but she had to overcome her greatest challenge to hang onto the crown this year.
In this final, Ledecky could not shake off challenges from Canada’s Summer McIntosh and Australia’s Lani Pallister until the very end. The challenge from McIntosh, who came within a second of Ledecky’s world record at last month’s Canadian Trials, was expected; from Pallister, not so much. Ledecky led throughout, swimming under her own world-record pace for much of the race, but the momentum appeared to be changing when McIntosh took over a narrow lead with 100 meters remaining.
But Ledecky would not back down. She turned to her kick and pulled back in the lead by a quarter-second entering the final length, and then she exploded. McIntosh had already won three gold medals this week, but she did not have the energy remaining to keep up. Pallister did, though, and she moved ahead of McIntosh while putting a slight scare into the American, but no one was catching Ledecky.
Ledecky finished in 8:05.62, crushing the championship record of 8:07.39 she set a decade ago at the World Championships in Kazan. The mark is the fourth-quickest performance ever.
Ledecky became the first swimmer to win seven world titles in a single event. She is already the most decorated female in the history of the World Championships, with 23 gold medals plus six silver and one bronze. Counting her win Tuesday in the 1500 free and this latest gold in the 800 free, Ledecky’s 18 individual titles rank as the most among any swimmers.
Lani Pallister, Katie Ledecky and Summer McIntosh with their medals from the 800 freestyle — Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
“I was really happy obviously. It’s the fastest I’ve ever been at a Worlds. It’s been a really great season, and I think coming into tonight, no matter what the outcome was, I was going to be really happy with my season. I think that took the pressure off an allowed me to enjoy the race and kind of appreciate that moment,” Ledecky said in an interview with NBC Sports.
“That last 100 was pretty stressful. You don’t want to push it too early so you don’t fade at the end. I was just putting everything I had into it. The last race of the season, I’m always thinking of that. I want to go into my little break being very happy with a swim. I’m ecstatic.”
The brilliant effort from Pallister earned her silver in 8:05.98, her third medal of the week after previously winning bronzes in the 1500 free and helping Australia take gold in the 800 free relay. Pallister also finished fourth in the 800 free while becoming the fourth-fastest performer ever in that event. Pallister was already the third-fastest performer in history, but she crushed her best time by almost five seconds in this brilliant performance.
“I didn’t think I’d be an 8:05. I thought under 8:10 was definitely realistic, but (coach) Dean (Boxall) said to me pre-race I was either going to be in front of them with them or behind them at the (last) 50, so turning with them was so surreal,” Pallister said. “I’m really happy with how I put that together and getting the silver behind the greatest distance from a real time is wicked.”
Ledecky was full of praise for her Australian rival’s massive improvement. “I knew she was going to be right there,” Ledecky said. “I knew there was a chance there could be four or five of us under 8:10. She just wouldn’t go away. She was right there the whole time. I knew it was going the last 100. The last 50, I saw her coming the whole way, so I had to pick it up.”
McIntosh entered the race having dominated all three of her previous individual races this week, as expected. She did not come close to her own world records in the 400 free or 200 IM, but she nearly nabbed the record in the 200 fly. She finished just 0.18 behind the only women’s mark remaining from the era of polyurethane suits, Liu Zige’s 2:01.81, but she was not able to hit her top form in this final as she won bronze in 8:07.29.
McIntosh won her fourth individual medal of the meet and ninth individual honor of her World Championships career, and she will be favored to collect a fourth gold in the 400 IM Sunday.
“At this point I’m literally just thinking about the 400 IM because I’m not done yet. But obviously that’s not even close to what I wanted time-wise, place-wise, how I executed the race. I just want to say congratulations to Katie and Lani, of course. They had amazing swims,” McIntosh said. “But that’s not what I wanted myself individually. In the first 400 I was really trying to cruise as much as possible but I don’t think I set my tempo right in the first half. I think I didn’t stay in the moment as well, I was all over the place and thinking too much because it’s 800.”
Italy’s Simona Quadarella, who won silver behind Ledecky in the 1500 free earlier this week, finished fourth here in 8:12.81. While she was well short of podium contention, she crushed her own European record of 8:14.55 by nearly two seconds and jumped into the all-time top-five in the event.
For the last two months, this event has been hyped as the signature showdown of the World Championships thanks to the times put up by Ledecky and McIntosh in the leadup. At the Fort Lauderdale Pro Series in early May, Ledecky broke the world record in the event for the first time in nine years, clocking 8:04.12 to beat the seemingly-insurmountable mark she posted at the Rio Olympics. Even though Ledecky has remained undefeated in the 800 during that time, she did not approach her best time for a long period until her recent resurgence.
Ledecky followed her world record with a mark of 8:05.76, then the third-fastest time ever, at U.S. Nationals. But a few days later, McIntosh entered the fray, choosing to contest the 800 at a major meet for the first time since her Olympic debut at age 14 four years ago. At the Canadian Trials, McIntosh threatened world-record pace for the entire race and ended up touching in 8:05.07, a bit quicker than the American had gone at her selection meet and within a second of the world record.
Pallister, meanwhile, secured her place as a medal contender for this final when she won the event at Australian Trials in 8:10.84. That broke the Aussie record held by Ariarne Titmus, who has seriously challenged Ledecky in the last two Olympic finals, and it turns out Pallister was ready to make another leap when matched up with these two decorated champions, even surpassing one down the stretch.
For the many years Ledecky has dominated this event, she maintained a massive advantage over the rest of the world in the all-time rankings. For many years, she owned all of the world’s top-25 times in the event. She first broke 8:10 when winning her second world title in 2015; no one joined her under that standard for almost a decade before McIntosh posted her huge drops earlier this year and Pallister did the same in Singapore.
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All kudos to Ledecky (pronounced Leh-Dets-Skee), a superlative performance under extreme pressure.
But Lani Pallister only 0.36 behind! Breaking her own personal best of only a few weeks ago by 5 seconds! At 24 she can also still improve.
Incredible race by all three, with a probably fatigued Miss Summer Time rounding out the podium.