Lani Pallister dethrones Katie Ledecky in first international 800m freestyle loss for American great

Lani Pallister of Australia stunned Katie Ledecky with her first international loss in the 800m freestyle at the Pan Pacific Championships on Saturday night. Pallister was under world-record pace for much of the race and touched in 8 minutes, 6.10 seconds to erase Ledecky's championship record from 2018. Ledecky, the four-time Olympic champion in her signature event, took silver in a season-best 8:07.26. The American's lone previous defeat in an 800m free final since 2010 came in a small domestic meet in February 2024 against rising star Summer McIntosh of Canada. “I was just so locked in and I've been really focused on what I want,” Pallister said. “The 800 is my favorite event. Katie’s such a dominant force.” Responding to defeat, Ledecky said: “That was definitely my best swim of the week, so I’m actually pretty happy with it. If I was going to get second tonight, I wanted to make it a good one. Just wanted to make it hard for Lani.” Kate Douglass lowered her own world record in the 50m free for the second time on Saturday, winning the final in 23.19 — one of three events on the final night. “I was doubting myself, questioning my ability to do the triple,” she said. “My coaches and my teammates just really had a lot of faith in me and they really gave me a lot of energy.” In the morning preliminaries, the 24-year-old American swam 23.49 to take the mark away from teammate Gretchen Walsh, who finished second in the evening final in 23.74. Ledecky swam a season's best time but saw her Championship record eclipsed (Getty) Douglass returned 25 minutes later to finish second in the 200 breaststroke. She rallied from third down the stretch but couldn’t catch Alexanne Lepage of Canada, who led the entire race and touched in a lifetime best of 2:21.73. Douglass finished in 2:22.57. Douglass capped a busy night by anchoring the U.S. women to a dominant victory, and a championship record time of 3:50.43, in the 4 x 100 medley relay, with Australia second in 3:55.09. Yu Yiting of China defeated a strong field including world record-holder McIntosh to win the 200 individual medley. Yu was under world-record pace on the opening butterfly leg before American Regan Smith took over the lead on the backstroke, then moved back in front on the breaststroke and held off McIntosh in the closing meters. Yu’s time of 2:07.45 set a championship record in the outdoor pool in Irvine. McIntosh, the Canadian star whose lone individual victory of the week was in the 400 IM, took silver in 2:07.47. American Alex Walsh, the older sister of Gretchen Walsh, earned bronze in 2:07.66. Summer McIntosh said there would be 'a lot of reflection' after this meet (Getty) McIntosh claimed silver in the 200 freestyle and bronze in the 4 x 200 freestyle relay, but surprisingly failed to qualify for the 400 free championship final, instead finishing first in the ‘B’ final. “It wasn’t a horrible swim, but getting touched out is something that is never a good thing to feel,” she said. “Overall, the meet didn’t go the way I wanted it to, so there’ll definitely be a lot of reflection.” AP