Ledecky's Legend Grows With 8:04.12 World Record From The Empress Of The League Of Longevity
"There is always a story to each world record that I set. I think tonight is the first one I’ve done when another American has done it. Hats off to Gretchen (Walsh) for getting us rolling this morning and starting a world record party." - Katie Ledecky
Another sub-8:10 was on the cards when Katie Ledecky returned to 3:56 over 400m for he first time in nine years and followed up with a 15:24 in the 1500, her fastest since her 2018 high bar. Anticipation turned to thrill and thriller when the 28-year-old giant of freestyle pioneering stopped the clock in a Word Record of 8:04.12 in the 800m freestyle as the 2025 Pro Swim series drew to a close in Fort Lauderdale.
It's been nine years since that 8:04.79 World-record victory at the Rio 2016 Olympics, where Ledecky became the first woman since fellow American Debbie Meyer in 1968 to claim the 200, 400 and 800m freestyle titles at a single Games. Indeed, Meyer had been the first and last to achieve that until Ledecky in 2016.
The swims 2016 and 2025 were almost identical, the last 100m sprint making up the 0.67sec gain on the clock in nine years:
- 57.57; 1:58.38; 3:00.08; 4:01.78; 5:02.99; 6:04.27; 7:05.37; 8:04.12 (58.75) Ledecky, F' Lauderdale - 03/05/2025
- 57.98; 1:59.42; 3:00.76; 4:01.98; 5:02.94; 6:04.30; 7:05.44; 8:04.79 (59.35) Ledecky, Rio 2016 O'Gold - 12/08/2016
The four-time 800m Olympic champion's latest epic marked the second global standard of the day - and there was one to come, Gretchen Walsh the painter of pioneering 100 'fly speed twice in a day:
Craig Lord
Ledecky's own pioneering way ahead of the curve of her contemporaries over 800 and 1500m free for more than a decade, is its very own form of eternal Zeitgeist, linked as it is to the thread of swimming history and the curve of progress in the pool; weaved as it is in the fabric of the USA's No-1 swim nation status, the biggest bull run of success in a single sport and what underpins it, including the impact of outliers such as Schollander, Meyer, Spitz, Babashoff if guardians were great not failed, and on to Peirsol, Phelps and Ledecky, a fair few others in between.
As noted in my report on Walsh's stunning speed, American women have been tested and even toppled by Dolphin strength this past decade of Ledecky's legend growing. Australian Ariarne Titmus and Canadian Summer McIntosh, the star of the women's events at Paris 2024, have both got past Ledecky up to the 400m. And McIntosh is the only swimmer to have beaten the American in an 800m race through the entirety of Ledecky's international career, which got off to a bang with lymphoid gold at London 2012 aged 15.
Shane Gould is a case apart, the Australian's shooting-star career and still-record five solo podiums at one Games in 1972, resonating half a century on. Historic comparison of measures before the 1970s is impossible, and any such exercise for at least 30 years after that stacked with asterisks, including facilities, opportunities, sports science and related support, financial rewards and more.
What's certain is that in the all-time league of longevity, Ledecky is the undisputed empress, her latest epic simply nailing her title to Her Majesty's mast.
We're not talking about comeback at thirysomething to win a dash event; we're not talking about comeback from a long post-Olympic break or the kind of time out of the sport many champions need to snore their longevity. No, Ledecky is like a roller in the ocean, eternally backed up by the next wave that's a part of the last one and the next to come.
Debbie Meyer bowed out before Gould's epic in 1972, while Janet Evans was the epitomy of longevity, her Olympic and World podiums stretching from 1988 to 1996, her curve of speed one in keeping with many other distance swimmers down the decades: pioneering, steady as she goes, dipping off at the tail end of a three-Olympics career.
Ledecky has broken the mould.
Nay, she has crushed it into a shape of her own will as she heads towards what would be a fifth games not just as a bonus as a champion of age being no barrier but as a golden contender travelling faster than she ever had over 800m at the age of 28.
