Katie Ledecky prolonged her reign within the 800-meter freestyle Saturday on the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, successful her seventh consecutive world title within the occasion with a championship-record time of 8:05.62. The 28-year-old held off Australia’s Lani Pallister (8:05.98) and Canada’s Summer time McIntosh (8:07.29) in a character-testing last that featured the three quickest ladies in historical past over the space.
Ledecky, trailing McIntosh on the 700-meter mark, surged forward on the ultimate lap, warding off a hard-charging Pallister as McIntosh pale within the closing meters.
With the win, Ledecky remained undefeated within the 800-meter freestyle finals occasion on the world stage relationship again to 2012. She has now gone 11-0 in main worldwide titles within the occasion, together with 4 Olympic golds.
The newest gold on the world championships is Ledecky’s twenty third profession world title, placing her inside three of Michael Phelps’ all-time file of 26. It is also her thirtieth profession world championship medal general.
McIntosh, 17, entered the race with three gold medals already on the Singapore championships and was bidding to turn out to be the primary swimmer since Phelps in 2007 to win 5 particular person world titles at a single meet. That bid got here up brief as Ledecky’s late-race push sealed her place atop the rostrum as soon as once more.
The Toronto teenager had crushed Ledecky at a U.S. meet in 2024, briefly ending Ledecky’s years-long dominance within the occasion, however opted to not swim the 800 on the 2024 Paris Olympics to concentrate on different races. She stays one of many sport’s brightest younger stars, and Saturday’s race could possibly be a preview of future showdowns, presumably on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Ledecky stays the one lady in historical past to win the identical particular person occasion at 4 Olympic Video games — in any sport — having received 800-meter gold in London (2012), Rio (2016), Tokyo (2021) and Paris (2024).
At 28, she was the oldest swimmer within the last and confirmed no indicators of slowing down.
Along with her seventh world title in a single occasion — one thing no different swimmer has achieved — Ledecky has as soon as once more solidified her standing as one of many best athletes the game has ever seen.
