By: Katherine Wu

On Saturday, June 18, Katie Ledecky won a 16th gold medal at the International Swimming Federation (FINA) Championships, this time in the women’s 400-meter freestyle.

It was a very close race between Ledecky and the Canadian Summer McIntosh. There was a constant back and forth between the two, but Ledecky held on and finished with a furious kick to win the race.

This victory is another in Ledecky’s string of wins. She clocked in at 3 minutes, 58.15 seconds—nearly a second faster than McIntosh, who swam 3:59.39. American Leah Smith took the bronze medal with 4:02.08 seconds, coming close to Lani Palliste’s time of 4:02.16.

Despite placing second, McIntosh pulled within a second of Ledecky with 100 meters to go, pushing Ledecky even further.

After the race Ledecky remained motivated and proud of her accomplishment. “I wanted to push to the point of pain tonight,” she said. “It’s the fastest I’ve ever been at worlds, so I’m happy with that and really excited about the rest of the [meet]. I’m just always trying to improve … We kind of set out this year [without] setting any time goals, just trying to improve each meet, and so far, I’ve done that, so that’s pretty good.”

Ledecky smashed her own meet record from 2017 and swam the fourth-fastest 400 of her distinguished career, which may have disappointed some who hoped to see her recapture the world record she lost to Australian wonder Ariarne Titmus (3:56.40) last month.

Beating her personal-best time for the 2021-22 season by more than a full second is likely what matters most to Ledecky in a year where she did not set any precise time targets and merely sought to improve.

It’s also possible that Ledecky, who appears revitalized after switching to a new training group at the University of Florida and a new coach, Anthony Nesty, in 2021, might have called on something extra in the company of her main competitor. Ledecky, though, dismissed any speculation that she was driven by a desire to retake her world record from Titmus.

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