Australia's Lani Pallister defeats Katie Ledecky in 800m freestyle at Pan Pacific Championships

Australia’s Lani Pallister dealt US great Katie Ledecky her first 800m freestyle defeat in a major international meet, beating her one-time idol at the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California.

Pallister led wire-to-wire on the way to victory in 8min 06.10sec and for the first time ever in the event Ledecky’s late charge wasn’t enough and she finished second in 8:07.26.

Ledecky has dominated the 800m since she won Olympic gold in 2012 as a 15-year-old, winning 13 international golds since then. That includes four Olympic medals and seven world titles in the event.

Canadian Summer McIntosh did beat Ledecky once in the 800m free in that span, at a sectional meet in Florida in February 2024.

World record-holder Ledecky maintained her hold on the event with a razor-thin victory over Pallister in a World Championships thriller last year in Singapore, where Ledecky said her rule for herself as younger swimmers began closing in was “I don’t lose 800s”.

Pallister, who claimed her first career win over Ledecky in the 400m free earlier this week before finishing second behind her in the 1,500m, showed that rule can be broken as the 29-year-old American looks toward adding to her collection of nine Olympic gold medals at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

The Australian punched the water in delight and got a hug over the lane rope from Ledecky. She paid tribute to the American in a post-race interview.

“Katie is such a dominant force and I think it’s really important we give her a big round of a hand,” she said. “Without her, we wouldn’t have women’s distance swimming in the place we’re at at the moment.

“To be part of that story at the moment [it’s] pretty much all because we get to chase Katie.”

Australian Jamie Jack won the men’s 50m free in 21.35sec and Zac Stubblety-Cook rallied from fourth at the final turn to win the men’s 200m breaststroke in 2:08.09 and give Australia another gold in the four-day meeting of top swimmers from non-European countries.

Sam Short clocked an Australian record of 14:33.97 to add 1,500m freestyle to his 400m and 800m gold.

Short, who pulled off the same treble at the Commonwealth Games, finished 8.62sec in front of Japan’s Kazushi Imafuku and said he was inspired by the world record of 14:26.79 set by Germany’s Johannes Liebmann at the European Championships in Paris on Saturday.

American Bobby Finke, the two-time Olympic gold medallist whose world mark was broken by Liebmann, was third in 14:44.26.