By: Miaomiao Yu

Last Saturday, Katie Ledecky won the gold medal in the women’s 400-meter freestyle event of the FINA World Championships.

This is her sixteenth gold medal at the world championships, five more than any other female swimmer in history. She clocked in at 3 minutes 58.15 seconds, which broke her own record in the 2017 tournament and represented the fourth-fastest 400 in her career.

During the past year, Ledecky aimed only for improvement, without setting any specific time goals. As a result, her time was her best for the 2021-2022 season: faster by more than a full second.

“I wanted to push to the point of pain tonight,” Ledecky told reporters. “It’s the fastest I’ve ever been at worlds, so I’m really 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.”

A strong runner-up, Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh, earned the silver medal with a time of 3:59.39. She is the fourth female in history to reach under 4 minutes for the 400-meter freestyle swim, along with Australian Ariarne Titmus, Ledecky, and Italian Federica Pellegrini. During the event, McIntosh pulled within a second of Ledecky with 100 meters to go, but Ledecky held her off with a furious finishing kick. Nonetheless, in the 2024 Paris Olympics, what seemed to be a two-way battle for gold between Titmus and Ledecky may have gained a third competitor.

“I was a little nervous. [McIntosh] hung in there the whole time, so she definitely pushed me a lot,” Ledecky said. “Summer is now in the sub-four-minute club, so it’s only going to get harder these races. So I know I have my work cut out for me. It’s a good stepping stone here, to just kind of have a baseline for the next couple years moving [toward] Paris.”