2025 AUSTRALIAN SWIMMING TRIALS
- Monday, June 9th – Saturday, June 14th
- SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre, Oaklands Park, South Australia
- Prelims at 11am local (9:30pm ET night before)/Finals at 7:30pm local (6:00am ET) nights 1&2; 7pm local (5:30am ET) nights 3-6
- LCM (50m)
- Swimming Australia World Championships Selection Criteria
- Meet Central
- Livestream (VPN needed outside of Australia)
- Start List
- Heat Sheets
- Results
- Recaps
The floodgates have opened in the women’s 800 freestyle this year, and Lani Pallister is now part of the surge.
The 23-year-old Aussie scorched an 8:10.84 at the country’s World Championship Trials tonight to earn herself a new national record, AllComers Record, and become the 3rd fastest performer of all time.
Both of these records are particularly impressive because they belonged to the two biggest names of this generation in women’s freestyle: Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus.
The national record previously belonged to Titmus, standing at 8:12.29 from the 2024 Paris Olympics. Pallister would’ve won gold above both Titmus and Katie Ledecky with the time she swam today.
| Pallister, 2025 Trials | Ledecky, 2024 Paris | Titmus, 2024 Paris | |
| 100m | 58.13 | 57.43 | 57.68 |
| 200m | 61.47 | 61.28 | 61.29 |
| 300m | 61.93 | 62.16 | 62.1 |
| 400m | 62.01 | 62.33 | 62.42 |
| 500m | 61.81 | 62.58 | 62.53 |
| 600m | 62.15 | 62.23 | 62.81 |
| 700m | 62.56 | 61.78 | 62.36 |
| 800m | 60.78 | 61.25 | 61.1 |
| Final Time | 8:10.84 | 8:11.04 | 8:12.29 |
Pallister’s new Allcomers Record, the fastest time swum on Australian soil, previously belonged to Ledecky. The record stood at 8:11.35 from the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships, which was at the time the 2nd fastest swim ever.
Compared to herself, Pallister dropped over four seconds from her 8:15.11 best from the 2023 World Championships in Budapest
The breakthrough swim ranks Pallister #3 in all-time performers and #16 in all-time performances. Notably, all five of the event’s top performers in history come from the past 12 months, and the top three come from 2025. Ledecky and Summer McIntosh rank #1 and #2, respectively, with recent historic swims.
All-Time Performers, Women’s 800 Free
- Katie Ledecky (USA) — 8:04.12, 2025
- Summer McIntosh (CAN) — 8:05.07, 2025
- Lani Pallister (AUS) — 8:10.84, 2025
- Ariarne Titmus (AUS) — 8:12.29, 2024
- Paige Madden (USA) — 8:13.00, 2024
2024-2025 LCM Women 800 Free
LEDECKY
WR 8:04.12
| 2 | Summer MCINTOSH | CAN | 8:05.07 | 06/08 |
| 3 | Lani PALLISTER | AUS | 8:05.98 | 08/02 |
| 4 | Simona QUADARELLA | ITA | 8:12.81 ER | 08/02 |
| 5 | Li Bingjie | CHN | 8:15.59 | 08/02 |
Pallister’s breakout meet, highlighted by this massive swim and a sub-4:00 400 freestyle earlier in the week, comes after recently moving to Dean Boxall’s training group.
The fact that possibly a sub 8:10 might get bronze at Worlds is astonishing
She has been having an incredible meet! Congrats to her on going sub 4 in the 4 free and now getting an 8:10 in the 800.
😮 Lani that was fantastic
Necessary jolt. The accepted norms in this event have been so pathetic
not really?? Paris was only slow because ledecky was sick for most of the year and titmus is relatively bad in the 800.
So Ledecky was sick in Tokyo too? Because that was also slower than Lani’s time.
Also I can’t imagine the type of person that would call a swimmer “relatively bad” at an event that, until recently, they were the second fastest all time in.
The WR was broken a month ago, and nearly broken again less than a week ago. This event is going in a great direction!
I’m looking forward to all 3 of them performing under pressure instead of in what have been basically time trials
Just an amazing swin! I doubt she would’ve swam this time if she had to do a competitive heat swim first and we saw what she went in Paris with that pool and conditions. So idk about comparing this time with Paris times.
She was sick in Paris
She had covid in Paris. Also 8:10 PB gives you a lot of wiggle room to make a final. 8:22 to make top 8 in prelims in Paris and at 2023 worlds.
She had Covid in Paris.
She didn’t even swim 1500.
Statements like “this time would have won gold at X” are just observations to give context. They’re not literally saying “she would have swam this at Paris and Ledecky should hand over her gold medal”. There’s no need to take it so seriously
Great pic and a killer swim! Cannot wait to see the 800 at worlds this year
Massive improvement by Lani.
Dean Boxall is so legendary, that he’s being discussed on Chinese Weibo.
One swim blogger is wondering what Li Bingjie can achieve under him 🤣🤣
Fun Fact: Following the Paris Olympics, Dean Boxall was invited by a swim club in China and hosted some clinics there.