Katie Ledecky Shatters World Record in Thrilling Gold-Medal Swim — Full Race Video, Stats & Reactions

American swimming icon Katie Ledecky reminded the world why she is the gold-standard of distance freestyle, storming to her seventh consecutive 800 m world crown at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. Touching in 8:05.62—a new championship record—the 28-year-old held off Australia’s Lani Pallister (8:05.98) and Canada’s teenage prodigy Summer McIntosh (8:07.29) in a thriller that kept the capacity crowd on its feet. The result extends an extraordinary streak that began in 2013 and cements Ledecky as the only swimmer, male or female, to win the same individual event at seven straight worlds. Equally impressive was the way she controlled the race: flipping almost level with McIntosh at the 400-m mark before unleashing her trademark back-half surge to power clear over the final 150 metres. The 8:05 clocking is Ledecky’s fastest since Tokyo 2021 and ranks No. 3 on the all-time list—behind only her own world record (8:04.79) and the supersuited mark of 8:04.53. Just 24 hours earlier, Ledecky anchored Team USA to a meet-record 7:37.21 in the women’s 4×200 m freestyle relay, splitting 1:53.6 to outduel Australia’s Mollie O’Callaghan and clinch a long-awaited relay title for the Americans. The double-medal haul pushes her career total to 28 world-championship podiums, second only to Michael Phelps in the sport’s history. Ledecky credited her continued dominance to a revamped altitude-training block in Colorado Springs and technical tweaks with longtime coach Anthony Nesty. “We shaved tenths off every turn, and that adds up over sixteen laps,” she told poolside reporters, adding that she still feels “miles of improvement” ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics. The victory also sends a message to the next generation of challengers. McIntosh, the 18-year-old Canadian who owns the 400 m world record, had targeted an historic distance double but conceded afterward that “Katie raised the bar again tonight”. Pallister, meanwhile, notched her first individual world medal and praised Ledecky’s “relentless tempo.” From an American perspective, Ledecky’s heroics cap a resurgent meet that has seen the Stars and Stripes reclaim the top spot on the medal table. With Paris 2026 and LA 28 on the horizon, USA Swimming officials say the veteran’s leadership is pivotal in mentoring rookies such as Claire Weinstein and Erin Gemmell, both of whom contributed legs in the record-breaking relay. Search traffic around Ledecky has surged in the wake of the championships, and analysts note that every major swim since Rio 2016 featuring the Maryland native has trended worldwide within minutes. Her social-media footprint now exceeds 2.3 million followers, thanks in part to behind-the-scenes content chronicling her grueling 100-km weekly training mileage. What’s next? Ledecky is slated to race the 1,500 m freestyle on the final night in Singapore, where she is the overwhelming favorite to complete another distance double. Should she prevail, the Stanford graduate will draw level with Phelps’ record eight individual world titles in a single event, underscoring a legacy already unmatched in women’s swimming. For now, the sport’s queen of distance reigns supreme—and the clock, yet again, is her loyal subject.