Lani Pallister takes down Katie Ledecky in 800m free as two world records carry Kate Douglass to gold
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Australian Lani Pallister dealt US great Katie Ledecky her first 800m freestyle defeat in a major international meet on Aug 15.
PHOTO: AFP
- Lani Pallister defeated Katie Ledecky in the 800m freestyle at the Pan Pacific Championships, marking Ledecky's first major international loss in this event.
- Ledecky has dominated the 800m freestyle since 2012, winning 13 international golds, but Pallister broke her winning streak and also beat her earlier in the 400m freestyle.
- Pallister praised Ledecky as a dominant force who advanced women's distance swimming and said chasing her has been a major motivation for her success.
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LOS ANGELES – Australian Lani Pallister dealt US great Katie Ledecky her first 800m freestyle defeat in a major international meet on Aug 15, beating her one-time idol at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California.
Pallister led wire-to-wire on the way to victory in 8min 6.10sec and for the first time ever in the event, Ledecky’s late charge was not enough and she finished second in 8:07.26.
It was a stunning result on the final day of Pan Pacs action that saw American Kate Douglass break the 50m freestyle world record twice on the way to gold, and earn the 200m breaststroke silver and medley relay gold as well.
Ledecky has dominated the 800m since she won Olympic gold in 2012 as a 15-year-old, winning 13 international golds since then. That includes four Olympic medals and seven world titles in the event.
Canadian Summer McIntosh did beat the American once in the 800m free in that span, at a sectional meet in Florida in February 2024.
Ledecky had maintained her hold on the event with a razor-thin victory over Pallister in a World Championships thriller in 2025 in Singapore, where the world-record holder said her rule for herself as younger swimmers began closing in was “I don’t lose 800s”.
Pallister, who claimed her first career win over Ledecky in the 400m free earlier this week before finishing second behind her in the 1,500m, showed that rule can be broken as the American looks towards adding to her collection of nine Olympic gold medals at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
The Australian punched the water in delight and got a hug over the lane rope from the 29-year-old, whom she paid tribute to in a post-race interview.
“Katie is such a dominant force and I think it’s really important we give her a big round of a hand,” the 24-year-old said. “Without her, we wouldn’t have women’s distance swimming in the place we’re at at the moment.
“To be part of that story at the moment (it’s) pretty much all because we get to chase Katie.”
Douglass, meanwhile, firmly established herself as the one to chase in the 50m free, winning the final in a devastating 23.19 seconds.
That sliced three-tenths of a second off the world record of 23.49sec she set hours earlier and saw her finish a whopping 55-hundredths of a second ahead of US teammate Gretchen Walsh.
Walsh set a world record of 23.55sec on June 28 in Rome – where she broke the world mark Douglass set on June 19.
Australia’s reigning world champion Meg Harris took bronze in 23.89sec.
Douglass, 24, returned less than half an hour later to claim silver in the 200m breaststroke won by Canadian Alexanne LePage in 2:21.73. The American then capped her night swimming the freestyle anchor leg for the US 4x100m medley relay team that took gold in 3:50.43, 4.66sec ahead of Australia.
Australian Jamie Jack won the men’s 50m free in 21.35sec and Zac Stubblety-Cook rallied from fourth at the final turn to win the men’s 200m breaststroke in 2:08.09 and give Australia another gold in the four-day meeting of top swimmers from non-European countries.
More McIntosh disappointment
Chinese Olympian Yu Yiting started the night with an upset of world-record holder McIntosh in the 200m medley, leading most of the way and holding off the Canadian’s charge on the final freestyle leg to win in 2:07.45.
McIntosh, the reigning world and Olympic champion, touched in 2:07.47. It was another disappointment for the 19-year-old in a meet that included 400m medley gold but only silver in the 200m free and a failure to make the championship final in the 400m free.
Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsushita completed a men’s medley double with a 200m victory in 1:56.02.
Samuel Short clocked an Australian record of 14:33.97 to add 1,500m freestyle to his 400m and 800m golds.
Short, who pulled off the same treble at the Commonwealth Games, finished 8.62sec in front of Japan’s Kazushi Imafuku and said he was inspired by the world record of 14:26.79 set by Germany’s Johannes Liebmann at the European Championships in Paris on Aug 15.
American Bobby Finke, the two-time Olympic gold medallist whose world mark was broken by Liebmann, was third in 14:44.26. AFP
