Australian Lani Pallister is the first swimmer to beat Katie Ledecky in an 800m freestyle at a major meet, ending Ledecky's streak at 13 international championship gold medals dating to 2012.
Pallister clocked 8 minutes, 6.10 seconds at the Pan Pacific Championships, beating Ledecky by 1.16 seconds in Irvine, California. Pallister took the lead from the start and never relinquished it.
Pallister, a 24-year-old who saved Ledecky’s autograph from 2014, built to this moment.
At the 2025 Worlds, she took silver behind Ledecky by 36 hundredths in the closest championship 800m free of Ledecky's career.
PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: Results
At these Pan Pacs, Pallister was 2.53 seconds behind Ledecky in the 1500m free — the closest anybody has been to Ledecky in a championship 1500m in 13 years — then beat Ledecky for the first time in any distance in the 400m free on Friday night.
Ledecky won the 800m free at the 2012 Olympics at age 15, then rattled off three more Olympic golds in the event, plus seven world titles and two Pan Pacific titles.
"First of all, Katie's such a dominant force, and I think it's real important we give her a big round of a hand," Pallister said on the NBC Sports broadcast. "Without her, we wouldn't have women's distance swimming in the place where it is at the moment. To be part of that story at the moment, pretty much all because we get to chase Katie."
Ledecky's only other 800m free defeat in the last 16 years came to Canadian Summer McIntosh at a small Florida meet in February 2024.
Lani Pallister, who saved Katie Ledecky’s autograph, has a chance to snap Ledecky’s gold-medal streakLani Pallister takes on Katie Ledecky in Ledecky’s trademark race, live on Peacock and NBCSN on Saturday night.In other events Saturday, China's Yu Yiting upset Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Summer McIntosh in the 200m individual medley, edging the 19-year-old Canadian by two hundredths.
McIntosh, who was disappointed with some of her swims at this meet, finished the week with one win (400m individual medley) in her four events, three of which she won at the 2025 World Championships.
McIntosh's coach since last summer, Bob Bowman, said going into the meet that he was still learning how to train McIntosh, noting this was the first taper meet of their working relationship.
04:38 Yiting surprises McIntosh in 200m IM at Pan PacsChina’s Yu Yiting swam a Championship Record 2:07.45 to win the 200m individual medley and keep Canada’s Summer McIntosh from gold. Alex Walsh of the U.S. finished third for the bronze and first career Pan Pacs medal.Australian Sam Short won the 1500m free to become the first man to sweep the 400m, 800m and 1500m frees, just as he did at the Commonwealth Games in late July.
Before this summer, the last man to sweep those three events at a major international meet was China's Sun Yang at the 2013 Worlds.
Van Mathias brings a bonkers swimming comeback story to Pan Pacific ChampionshipsVan Mathias, out of swimming for two years, is now the fastest American breaststroker in history.
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