2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
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- LCM (50m)
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The women’s 800 freestyle was billed to be one of the top races of the meet, and while the excitement surrounding the race was not a shock, Lani Pallister‘s silver medal was.
In the whole lead-up to the meet, the question was, “Can Summer McIntosh beat Katie Ledecky in the women’s 800 freestyle?” They had the top two times in history, and seemed to be leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the field, with the next fastest seed, Pallister, coming in more than six seconds back.
Turns out, there should have been another question of “Can Lani Pallister beat Katie Ledecky?”, and while the answer would still have been “no”, she gave the GOAT a run for her money.
Pallister came into the meet with a lifetime best 8:10.84 from the 2025 Australian Trials, which was a four second drop from her previous best time of 8:15.11 that she swam at the 2023 World Championships.
She has been having an exceptional meet so far, picking up a 4th place in the women’s 400 free and a bronze in the women’s 1500 after challenging Ledecky for the first part of that race as well. Last night, she had the best performance of her career in the women’s 800 freestyle final.
She got out in 4:01.33 for the first 400, tied with McIntosh just two tenths behind Ledecky’s 4:01.15. After that turn, she sat in 3rd place for the rest of the race until her final 50, staying within a few tenths of the leaders until the 700m turn, where she almost a half-second behind the leader McIntosh, flipping in 7:06.14 to the Canadian’s 7:05.71.
She was even further back at the 750 mark, splitting 30.73 to flip in 7:36.87 to McIntosh’s 30.63 and 7:36.34 splits in 2nd and Ledecky’s 30.24 and 7:36.09 splits for the lead.
Pallister turned on the rockets after the final turn, surging past McIntosh and almost catching Ledecky to split the fastest final 50 in the field by more than four tenths, touching in 29.11 to win the silver medal in 8:05.98, a feat nobody saw coming, not even Pallister herself.
After the race, Pallister told the media “I didn’t really feel like I was in it. I feel like I was kind of just watching them go about their business, and I was kind of just on the side thinking, ‘Oh, who’s going to win?” She went on to say she was “really happy” with how she “put it together” crediting her very long week of racing by saying “This is such a big week. I think Katie and I have both done 5.6km of racing, so to drop an 8:05 off the back of it is huge.”
This time marks a near 10 second drop from her pre-season best time and absolutely shattered her own Oceania Record from the Trials.
She was just three tenths back of Ledecky, who split 29.53 on her final 50 to finish in a Championship record time of 8:05.62, and she was a over a second ahead of McIntosh, who was 30.95 on the final 50 to stop the clock at 8:07.29 for the bronze.
Pallister’s time was the 6th fastest swim in history, and, while she was already the 3rd fastest woman, she puts more distance between herself and country mate Ariarne Titmus who sits in 4th at 8:12.29.
Updated All-Time Top Performances, Women’s 800 LCM Freestyle:
- Katie Ledecky — 8:04.12 (2025)
- Katie Ledecky — 8:04.79 (2016)
- Summer McIntosh — 8:05.07 (2025)
- Katie Ledecky – 8:05.62 (2025) *2025 World Championships
- Katie Ledecky — 8:05.76 (2025)
- Lani Pallister – 8:05.98 (2025) *2025 World Championships
- Katie Ledecky — 8:06.68 (2016)
- Katie Ledecky –8:07.07 (2023)
- Katie Ledecky — 8:07.27 (2018)
- Summer McIntosh – 8:07.29 (2025) *2025 World Championships
Top 5 Women’s LCM 800 Free Performers All-Time
- Katie Ledecky (USA) – 8:04.12, 2025
- Summer McIntosh (CAN) – 8:05.07, 2025
- Lani Pallister (AUS) – 8:05.98, 2025
- Ariarne Titmus (AUS) – 8:12.29, 2024
- Simona Quadarella (ITA) – 8:12.81, 2025
New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather was also in the final, finishing 7th in 8:20.87, just off her lifetime best of 8:18.00 from the New Zealand Championships in 2023.
Other Oceania Finalist/Semifinals Swims
- Cameron McEvoy (Australia) won the men’s 50 freestyle final in 21.14, touching a little more than a tenth ahead of Great Britain’s Ben Proud. This time was eight-hundredths off his lifetime best and the Oceanian record of 21.06 he swam to win the event at the 2023 World Championships.
- Kaylee McKeown (Australia) won the women’s 200 backstroke in a new Championship Record time of 2:03.33, beating American Regan Smith by almost a second. This was her 3rd fastest time, coming in after her World Record swim of 2:03.14 and her 2024 Australian Trials swim of 2:03.30
- Alexandria Perkins (Australia) took the silver medal in the women’s 50 butterfly, coming in at 25.31, about half-a-second behind American Gretchen Walsh. Her time tied the Oceanian and Australian record set by Holly Barratt in 2019.
- Lily Price (Australia) also swam in the 50 fly final, stopping the clock in 25.61 for 6th overall
- Matt Temple (Australia) finished 5th in te men’s 100 fly in 50.57, about half a second behind 4th place Josh Liendo (40.09), and almost four tenths ahead of 6th place Andrei Minakov (50.57)
- Meg Harris (Australia) earned the 3rd seed for tomorrow’s 50 free final in a tie with Gretchen Walsh at 24.31, five hundredths ahead of the tie for 5th at 24.36.
- Isaac Cooper (Australia) swam 24.53 in the men’s 50 backstroke semifinal to earn the last qualifying spot in tomorrow’s event final.
National/Oceanian Records
- Lani Pallister (Australia): Women’s 800 Freestyle Oceanian and Australian Record- 8:05.98
- Alexandria Perkins (Australia): Women’s 50 Butterfly Oceanian and Australian Record (tied)- 25.31
- Anahira McCutcheon (Fiji): Women’s 50 Freestyle National Record- 25.84
Oceania Medal Table
| Rank |
Nation
|
Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 |
Australia
|
7 | 4 | 6 | 17 |
Medal Table Through Day Seven of 2025 World Championships
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 |
U.S.
|
8 | 11 | 7 | 26 |
| 2 |
Australia
|
7 | 4 | 6 | 17 |
| 3 | Canada | 3 | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| 4 | France | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | China | 2 | 4 | 4 | 10 |
| 6 | Germany | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 7 | Romania | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | Italy | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
| 9 | NAB | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 10 | South Africa | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 11 | Great Britain | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 12 | Netherlands | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 13 | Hungary | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 14 | Tunisia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 | Switzerland | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 16 | Belgium | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 16 | Japan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 18 | Poland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 19 | Kyrgyzstan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 19 | South Korea | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 19 | NAA | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
“Oceania” had a great night tonight 2 golds and 2 silvers .. despite the huge mixed relay blunder that would have been another medal
After this performance I’m thinking Lani can already go quicker in the 400 and of course the 1500 too with less insane pacing.
Lani blew my mind last night.
For a moment I thought another of Boxall girls going to bring the Goat down.
As soon as I heard Lani moved to SPW I knew what Boxall’s plan is! Same plan he had for Arnie only in the 800 and 1500.
I do love that Summer has Katie and Lani to look up to. In a sense, Summer’s inexperience racing the 800 was refreshing to watch. I think most of us (including Summer herself) thought she had it in the bag.
If she improves her last 5m into the wall and first 10m out of the turn she’ll be a super scary competitor for Ledecky
That’s gotta be the most stacked W800 final in history. Even those off the podium put up some historically good times.
The “quietist” 8.12 you’ll ever see from Quaderella.
Might be the swim of the meet, especially on the Women’s side!
In terms of top tier improvement then possibly you’re right……. but there was a pretty sensational W200fly swim that trumps this W800free in my opinion, even though I very much disliked the athlete’s reaction post race of that W200fly swim, it still doesn’t take away the quality of it for me.
Interesting. Would you say that if she was a man?
I bet she is in shambles because you do not approve. Clown
Yeah, in terms of over-performing, Pallister takes the cake. I thought she could go 8:08; I would’ve never predicted 8:05 rn.
I was screaming at the TV “Katie! Watch out for the Aussie!!!”. I could see her coming.