In what may have been the best race of her career, Katie Ledecky won an 800m freestyle that lived up to the hype, becoming the first swimmer to win a seventh world title in one event.
Ledecky swam 8:05.62 to beat Australian Lani Pallister (8:05.98) and Canadian Summer McIntosh (8:07.29) in a showdown among the three fastest women in history in the event.
Ledecky rallied from second place at 700 meters — just .14 behind McIntosh — then held off the charging Pallister in a championship record time. It’s her 23 world title (second to Michael Phelps’ 26) and 30th world medal (second to Phelps’ 33).
Ledecky is now 11-0 in global finals in the 800m free, her trademark event, since her 2012 Olympic breakout at age 15.
SWIMMING WORLDS: Results | Broadcast Schedule
Gretchen Walsh fills U.S. women’s swim worlds gold set
Earlier Saturday, American Gretchen Walsh added the 50m fly title to her 100m fly victory from last Monday.
She swam 24.83 seconds, distancing silver medalist Alexandria Perkins by 48 hundredths — greater than the margin separating Perkins from last place in the race.
Of the 42 women’s and men’s events on the world championships program, the women’s 50m fly was the only one the U.S. had never won.
The U.S. has won at least one medal in all 16 women’s events held so far at these worlds. There are four women’s finals left on Sunday.
Walsh was one of the majority of U.S. swim team members affected to varying degrees by acute gastroenteritis, or a stomach bug, leading into worlds.
“It felt like myself again in the water,” she said Saturday. She said Monday that her body had felt “fragile.”
She has one individual event left at these worlds: the 50m free. She owns the world’s top time this year.
Australian Kaylee McKeown and American Regan Smith went one-two in the 200m backstroke, just as they did in all three backstrokes at the 2023 Worlds, both backstrokes at the 2024 Olympics and in the 100m back earlier at these worlds.
American Claire Curzan, who swept the backstrokes at the 2024 Worlds in the absence of McKeown and Smith, took bronze Saturday. Both U.S. entries won a medal in all three women’s backstroke events.
McKeown clocked 2:03.33, the third-fastest time in history. McKeown and Smith combine to own 22 of the top 23 times in history.
Frenchman Maxime Grousset took the men’s 100m fly in 49.62, the third-fastest time in history behind Caeleb Dressel’s top two.
Australian Cameron McEvoy and Brit Ben Proud went one-two in the men’s 50m free, repeating their finishes from the Olympics. American Jack Alexy added bronze to his 100m free silver.
