Forty-two events will be contested in the pool at the World Aquatics swimming championships starting Saturday in Singapore. One of them looms larger than all the rest: the women’s 800-meter freestyle.
Katie Ledecky vs. Summer McIntosh.
Is a generational changeover at hand? Or will Ledecky extend her unparalleled run of dominance in the event that first put her on the map in 2012? We’ll find out Aug. 2.
The ageless titan of American swimming and the blazing Canadian teenager both posted stunning times in that event this spring, setting the stage for this showdown.
First, the 28-year-old Ledecky turned back the clock on May 3 at a meet in Fort Lauderdale, recording a time of 8:04.12 to break her nine-year-old world record by more than half a second. It was her first world record since 2018, and it serves as a statement that she will almost certainly continue to be a factor through the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles—which would be her fifth Summer Games appearance.
But just 36 days later, the 18-year-old McIntosh made a statement of her own—she’s coming for Ledecky in her signature event. In the midst of a staggering performance at the Canadian national trials—in which McIntosh smashed three world records—she became the only other woman in history to break 8:09 in the 800, dropping all the way down to 8:05.07.
Suddenly, someone is within a second of Ledecky’s bulletproof best at a distance where she has won every major international final for 13 years—including four straight Olympic gold medals. Now Ledecky “only” has 11 of the top 12 times in 800 freestyle history.
At one point in 2024, Ledecky had all of the fastest 29 times in the event. But early last year, McIntosh fired a shot across the queen’s bow by beating her in an 800 free at a relatively low-level meet in Orlando—the first time Ledecky had lost an 800 final of any kind since 2010.
Still, their times were nowhere near what they’ve done since—McIntosh stopped the clock at 8:11.39, while Ledecky came in at 8:17.12. At the Paris Olympics, Ledecky again cruised to a no-double gold medal, beating Australia’s Ariarne Titumus by more than a second. McIntosh chose not to swim the event, winning gold medals instead in the 200 and 400 individual medleys, and the 200 butterfly.
So now they come together again with a world title on the line, and with both coming off lifetime-best swims.
For Ledecky, her performances in May in Fort Lauderdale were a rejuvenating return to peak form. (She also swam the second-fastest 400 and 1,500 freestyles of her life at that meet.) Skeptics who thought they’d seen the last of Peak Ledecky were proven wrong.
“Things are clicking with my stroke,” Ledecky said at U.S. nationals in June in Indianapolis. “I’ve got a lot of confidence. Training has been going really well, just the consistency on all fronts. It’s just really smooth right now.”
This was a bounce-back from an up-and-down 2024, when Ledecky revealed in her autobiography, “Just Add Water,” that she has Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). The condition can trigger abnormally large jumps in heart rate when sitting up or standing, which can lead to lightheadedness or “brain fog.”
That curtailed progress Ledecky believed she’d been making in 2023, her second full season training with Anthony Nesty at Florida. Since getting the POTS back under control, Ledecky’s legendary training ability has returned.
“I’ve been healthy for most of the year,” she said. “Kind of had some ups and downs from that last year.”
When Ledecky got back to intensive training post-Paris, there was evidence she was ready for a big year in 2025. She swam a 15:49 1,500 in a practice suit, which she said was her personal best in a practice by 10 seconds. What’s followed has been swims that will make her the gold-medal favorite in both the 1,500 and 800, and a medal favorite in the 400 as well.
But McIntosh is poised to be the dominant female swimmer at world championships, as she was in Paris. Training in Sarasota, Fla., for Brent Arckey made her a star through 2024, and current coach Fred Vergnoux seems to have found another gear in the Canadian prodigy.
McIntosh is the prohibitive favorite in the 400 IM, where her world-record swim of 4:23.65 is 10 seconds faster than the next-best woman this year. She’s also 2.75 seconds ahead of her nearest challenger in the 200 IM, more than three seconds ahead in the 200 butterfly and 2.7 seconds ahead of Ledecky in the 400 free.
The question is this: how much of a workload can McIntosh handle in Singapore and still perform at her best throughout the meet? She is scheduled for 12 individual swims in five events across eight days, plus possible relay work. (The 400 medley relay seems a certainty.) And these are not sprints; all her events are 200 meters or longer.
When the 800 free final goes off on Aug. 2, McIntosh will probably have already logged nine swims. Ledecky will have logged six.
“I’ve never done the 800 on the world level before, so it’ll be lots of fun,” McIntosh said in a video call with the media earlier this month. “And I’ve also never done heats and finals for the 800 at an event before, so just seeing how I manage all that will be interesting.”
The interest level will be high when the two square off for round one, the 400 free, at the beginning of the meet. But the real intrigue will be for round two, near the end, when Summer McIntosh tries to do what nobody has done at the international level since 2012—take the crown off Katie Ledecky’s head in the 800 freestyle.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Katie Ledecky, Summer McIntosh Destined for 800 Free Showdown at World Championships.