Katie Ledecky is 26 years old and had not been beaten in the final of an 800-meter freestyle race since 2010, when she was 13. That winning streak, in other words, had lasted half her life, encompassing victories on four continents, including six consecutive world championships and three Olympic golds.
But on Thursday evening, in an otherwise under-the-radar meet in Orlando, Ledecky’s winning streak in the 800 free came to abrupt end, in a manner that will reverberate throughout the sport all the way until Aug. 3, when the same race is contested in Paris at the Summer Games. Suddenly, Ledecky’s once-massive lead over the rest of the world in her signature event is in doubt.
The conqueror in question was 17-year-old Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh, who, in Thursday’s final of the 800 at the Southern Zone South Sectional Championships, posted a stunning time of 8 minutes 11.39 seconds — a mark that represented a personal best (by a whopping nine seconds), a Canadian record and the fastest in history by a female swimmer not named Ledecky. Notably, it also would have edged out Ledecky for gold at the Tokyo Olympics, where the latter won in 8:12.57.
In second place Thursday, with a time of 8:17.12, was Ledecky, the seven-time Olympic gold medalist and arguably the greatest female swimmer in history. Long accustomed to interminable waits at the wall while her competitors finished their races, suddenly she needed nearly six extra seconds to join McIntosh there. Ledecky’s last loss in the 800? It was at the 2010 Potomac Valley Championships, where she finished third.
The 800 is her baby, the race that thrust her into the world’s consciousness as a 15-year-old in London 2012, where she pulled off an upset to earn the first gold medal of her career.
She would go on to win the event in two more Olympics, Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2020; in six straight world championships, a record; and in a couple of dozen lesser events in between. Ledecky’s time of 8:04.79 in Rio still stands as the world record.
And what does it all mean for Paris? It means Ledecky, at the very least, will face her biggest challenge in the 800 since half a lifetime ago.
Since shifting her training base to Gainesville, Fla. following the Tokyo Olympics, Ledecky has been posting some of her fastest times since the mid-2010s. She went 8:07.07 last summer to win the 800 in the U.S. championships — her fastest time in that race in more than seven years — then went on to win gold at worlds in 8:08.81.