Lani Pallister ends Katie Ledecky’s streak in 800m freestyle at 13 gold medals

Australian Lani Pallister is the primary swimmer to beat Katie Ledecky in an 800m freestyle at a serious meet, ending Ledecky’s streak at 13 worldwide championship gold medals relationship to 2012.

Pallister clocked 8 minutes, 6.10 seconds on the Pan Pacific Championships, beating Ledecky by 1.16 seconds in Irvine, California. Pallister took the lead from the beginning and by no means relinquished it.

Ledecky put a scare into Pallister late within the race, outsplitting her by seven tenths from 700 meters to 750 meters and reducing the result in 94 hundredths.

“I saw her coming on the 15th 50 (between 700 and 750 meters), and I was like, holy s—-,” Pallister stated.

PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: Results

Ledecky stated it was her finest swim of the meet.

“So I’m actually pretty happy with it,” she stated. “If I was going to get second tonight, I wanted to make it a good one.”

Pallister, a 24-year-old who saved Ledecky’s autograph from 2014, stated the time main as much as the race was probably the most nervous she has ever felt. But she constructed to this second.

At the 2025 Worlds, she took silver behind Ledecky by 36 hundredths within the closest championship 800m freed from Ledecky’s profession.

At these Pan Pacs, Pallister was 2.53 seconds behind Ledecky within the 1500m free — the closest anyone has been to Ledecky in a championship 1500m in 13 years — then beat Ledecky for the primary time in any distance within the 400m free on Friday night time.

Ledecky gained the 800m free on the 2012 Olympics at age 15, then rattled off three extra Olympic golds within the occasion, plus seven world titles and two Pan Pacific titles.

Pan Pacs, a meet for non-European swimmers, is the most important competitors of 2026 for swimmers from the U.S. and Australia.

“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 stated 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 solely different 800m free defeat within the final 16 years got here to Canadian Summer McIntosh at a small Florida meet in February 2024.

At the 2028 Olympics, the ladies’s 800m free is the final particular person occasion of the Games. It is an opportunity for Ledecky to turn out to be the second athlete to win the identical particular person Olympic occasion 5 occasions (after Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez), however now it’s trying prefer it could possibly be the hardest Olympic 800m of her profession.

“If it’s a year to have a not-so-good meet, this is the year to have it,” she stated. “I’m really excited about the next two years. I can reflect over the next couple weeks about where I can be better. I think I got a lot of good data from this meet and the whole year. It’s been a really great stretch for me since May 2025.”

Pan Pacs highlights air Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on NBC.

Lani Pallister takes on Katie Ledecky in Ledecky’s trademark race, reside on Peacock and NBCSN on Saturday night time.

In different occasions Saturday, Kate Douglass broke the 50m freestyle world file within the prelims and ultimate, plus anchored the U.S. ladies’s 4x100m medley relay to gold and took silver within the 200m breaststroke. More on Douglass’ historic day right here.

In that medley relay, Gretchen Walsh posted the quickest butterfly cut up in historical past — 54.78, beating her personal 54.98 from the 2025 Worlds.

China’s Yu Yiting upset Olympic gold medalist and world file holder Summer McIntosh within the 200m particular person medley, edging the 19-year-old Canadian by two hundredths.

McIntosh, who was upset with a few of her swims at this meet, completed the week with one win (400m particular person medley) in her 4 particular person occasions, three of which she gained on the 2025 World Championships.

McIntosh’s coach since final summer time, Bob Bowman, stated going into the meet that he was nonetheless studying how you can prepare McIntosh, noting this was the primary taper meet of their working relationship.

Australian Sam Short gained the 1500m free to finish a sweep of the 400m, 800m and 1500m frees, simply as he did on the Commonwealth Games in late July.

Before this summer time, the final man to brush these three occasions at a serious worldwide meet was China’s Sun Yang on the 2013 Worlds.

NBC Sports’ Ardynne Fleitz contributed to this report from Irvine.

Van Mathias, out of swimming for 2 years, is now the quickest American breaststroker in historical past.