FORT LAUDERDALE: Katie Ledecky broke her longstanding world record in the 800m freestyle and Gretchen Walsh lowered her 100m butterfly world mark twice in one day as the Tyr Pro Swim meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida concluded on Saturday.
Ledecky shattered her own 800 metres freestyle world record in eight minutes 4.12 seconds finding her best form heading into the world championships.
Ledecky bettered her previous mark of 8:04.79 set nearly a decade ago at the Rio Games that many thought would outlast her career and she pounded her fists on the water in an emotional celebration after seeing her time.
Jillian Cox was second, 19.46sec back on 8:23.58. Claire Weinstein was third in 8:26.06.
It was the sixth time that Ledecky had set a new mark in the event. She took the record from Rebecca Adlington in 2013.
The record-breaking swim capped an extraordinary series of performances for the 28-year-old, the most decorated female Olympic swimmer, who posted her second-fastest 400m freestyle time on Thursday — her best in nine years and the second-fastest 1500m freestyle time in history on Wednesday.
The hot streak is a welcome sign for the nine-time Olympic gold medallist Ledecky ahead of the world championships that run from July 11-Aug 3 in Singapore.
Earlier, Walsh became the first woman to break 55 seconds in the 100m butterfly, winning final in a jaw-dropping world record of 54.60sec.
That came hours after she lowered her own world record with a swim of 55.09sec in the preliminaries, improving on the 55.18 she set at the US Olympic trials in Indianapolis last June. Torri Huske was a distant second as she finished in 56.59 seconds.
France’s Leon Marchand, who starred at the Paris Olympics with four individual gold medals, departed Fort Lauderdale without a victory.
The 22-year-old closed his campaign with a runner-up finish to Shaine Casas in the 200m individual medley — one of his gold medal events in Paris.
Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2025