Berkoff, Smith headline 50m backstroke podium
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Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
World Aquatics Championships 2025: Katie Ledecky beats Summer McIntosh in 800m freestyle 'race of the century'
Katie Ledecky beat Summer McIntosh in one of the biggest non-Olympic swimming races during Saturday's women's 800-meter freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. [Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season] The race, dubbed "the biggest race of this century, men or women, from outside of the Olympic format" by NBC swimming analyst Rowdy Gaines this week, lived up to the hype as Ledecky and McIntosh, slotted into lanes 3 and 4, battled to a dramatic finish. Ledecky pulled away in the final 50 meters to win while Lani Pallister finished second. McIntosh was third. Both Ledecky, 28, and McIntosh, 18, cruised to the finals after winning their individual qualifying heats on Friday. Ledecky has won a total of 14 Olympic medals in her career, including nine golds. McIntosh put herself on the map during last summer's Paris Olympics by taking home three golds and a silver. The 800m freestyle has been Ledecky's race, with the Maryland native winning gold in the event at each of the past four Olympics, the only woman to achieve that feat. She also owns six consecutive world titles in the 800m going back to the 2013 event. McIntosh had been trying to join Michael Phelps as the only swimmers to ever win five gold medals in a single world championships. Ledecky's win in the 800m free ended that. McIntosh has bested Ledecky in the 800m freestyle before. In February 2024, the Canadian was six seconds faster than Ledecky at the Southern Zone South Sectional Championships in Orlando, Florida. It was Ledecky's first defeat in the event since 2010. It's been a fruitful week already for both swimmers. Ledecky claimed gold in the 1,500m freestyle and a bronze in the 400m freestyle. That 400m finish was behind McIntosh, who claimed gold in the event, along with the 200 IM and 200 fly. Both Ledecky and McIntosh have been chasing records set by Michael Phelps, who won five individual gold medals at the 2007 World Championships. In other events, Gretchen Walsh became the first American woman to ever win gold at the world championships in the 50m butterfly. Regan Smith and Claire Curzan took silver and bronze, respectively, in the women's 200m backstroke. Jack Alexy's bronze in the men's 50 freestyle was his third medal of the 2025 world championships.
NBC Sports
14 minutes ago
- NBC Sports
Katie Ledecky tops Pallister, McIntosh in swim worlds epic; Gretchen Walsh adds gold
In what may have been the best race of her career, Katie Ledecky won an 800m freestyle that lived up to the hype, becoming the first swimmer to win a seventh world title in one event. Ledecky swam 8:05.62 to beat Australian Lani Pallister (8:05.98) and Canadian Summer McIntosh (8:07.29) in a showdown among the three fastest women in history in the event. Ledecky rallied from second place at 700 meters -- just .14 behind McIntosh -- then held off the charging Pallister in a championship record time. It's her 23 world title (second to Michael Phelps' 26) and 30th world medal (second to Phelps' 33). Ledecky is now 11-0 in global finals in the 800m free, her trademark event, since her 2012 Olympic breakout at age 15. SWIMMING WORLDS: Results | Broadcast Schedule Gretchen Walsh fills U.S. women's swim worlds gold set Earlier Saturday, American Gretchen Walsh added the 50m fly title to her 100m fly victory from last Monday. She swam 24.83 seconds, distancing silver medalist Alexandria Perkins by 48 hundredths — greater than the margin separating Perkins from last place in the race. Of the 42 women's and men's events on the world championships program, the women's 50m fly was the only one the U.S. had never won. The U.S. has won at least one medal in all 16 women's events held so far at these worlds. There are four women's finals left on Sunday. Walsh was one of the majority of U.S. swim team members affected to varying degrees by acute gastroenteritis, or a stomach bug, leading into worlds. 'It felt like myself again in the water,' she said Saturday. She said Monday that her body had felt 'fragile.' She has one individual event left at these worlds: the 50m free. She owns the world's top time this year. Nick Zaccardi, Australian Kaylee McKeown and American Regan Smith went one-two in the 200m backstroke, just as they did in all three backstrokes at the 2023 Worlds, both backstrokes at the 2024 Olympics and in the 100m back earlier at these worlds. American Claire Curzan, who swept the backstrokes at the 2024 Worlds in the absence of McKeown and Smith, took bronze Saturday. Both U.S. entries won a medal in all three women's backstroke events. McKeown clocked 2:03.33, the third-fastest time in history. McKeown and Smith combine to own 22 of the top 23 times in history. Frenchman Maxime Grousset took the men's 100m fly in 49.62, the third-fastest time in history behind Caeleb Dressel's top two. Australian Cameron McEvoy and Brit Ben Proud went one-two in the men's 50m free, repeating their finishes from the Olympics. American Jack Alexy added bronze to his 100m free silver. Having already won gold in the women's 100m butterfly earlier in the competition, Gretchen Walsh swam a time of 24.83 seconds to add the 50m world title as well at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.
NBC News
14 minutes ago
- NBC News
Katie Ledecky wins seventh consecutive world title in 800 freestyle
Katie Ledecky stubbornly refused to give up her 800-meter freestyle crown Saturday at the world championships in Singapore, winning that race for a seventh consecutive time and fending off Canada's Summer McIntosh who led a field of talented young, would-be usurpers. When the Maryland native triumphantly touched the wall first, she earned her seventh consecutive 800 free title in world meets dating back to 2013. The niece of New York Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky has also been dominating the 800 free at the Olympics, having won gold in this race at the 2012 games in London, 2016 in Rio, 2021 in Tokyo and last summer near Paris. She's the only woman to win the same individual event at four Olympics, in any sport. The only other swimmer to pull off such a four-peat was American legend Michael Phelps, who took the 200 individual medley in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. At age 28, Ledecky was the field's oldest swimmer and she outdueled her youngest and most fierce competitor, the 18-year-old Toronto native McIntosh. Ledecky's air of 800 invincibility was dented last year when a 17-year-old McIntosh beat the American at the Southern Zone South Sectional Championships in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 8. The Canadian prodigy opted against swimming in the 800 in France to concentrate on other events. She took gold in the 200 butterfly, 200 Individual Medley and 400 Individual Medley to become one of the breakout stars of last summer. If McIntosh takes on the 800 free in Los Angeles, Saturday's race was a tantalizing preview of what could be in store for 2028.
