The final day of the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California, delivered major surprises. On the evening of August 15 (local time), American swimmer Kate Douglass twice broke the world record in the 50m freestyle, while legend Katie Ledecky lost her first 800m freestyle race after over a decade of dominance.
Lani Pallister, an Australian swimmer who once idolized Ledecky, led from start to finish and touched the wall in 8 minutes 6.10 seconds. Ledecky finished second with 8:07.26 despite a strong push in the final meters. This marked the first time since winning the Olympic 800m freestyle gold in 2012 at age 15 that Ledecky has lost at a major international meet, ending a streak of 13 consecutive international titles, including four Olympic golds and seven world championships.
Pallister, who beat Ledecky in the 400m freestyle earlier in the week and finished second in the 1500m, said: "Katie is a dominating force. Without her, women's distance swimming wouldn't be where it is today. To be part of this story is almost because all of us get to race Katie." She concluded the meet with four gold medals in the 200m, 400m, 800m, and the 4x200m relay.
In the 50m freestyle, Kate Douglass stunned everyone by breaking the world record twice in one day. She set a record of 23.49 seconds in the heats, then smashed it again in the final with 23.19 seconds, beating teammate Gretchen Walsh by 0.55 seconds. Walsh had previously held the world record of 23.55 seconds set in Rome in June, which had broken Douglass's mark of 23.49 from a few weeks earlier.
Douglass also added a silver in the 200m breaststroke and a gold in the 4x100m medley relay with the U.S. team. In the 200m breaststroke, she finished behind Canada's Alexanne LePage (2:21.73).
In other events, Australia earned two more golds via Jamie Jack (men's 50m freestyle, 21.35) and Zac Stubblety-Cook (men's 200m breaststroke, 2:08.09, coming from fourth place on the final lap).
China's Yu Yiting caused a shock by beating Summer McIntosh in the 200m individual medley with a time of 2:07.45, just 0.02 seconds ahead of the Olympic and world champion from Canada. McIntosh had a disappointing meet, winning only the 400m IM and missing the 400m freestyle final.
In the men's 1500m freestyle, Sam Short (Australia) set a national record of 14:33.97, earning his third gold after the 400m and 800m. The 26-year-old said he was inspired by Johannes Liebmann's world record of 14:26.79 set in Europe the same day. Bobby Finke (USA), whose record was broken by Liebmann, finished third in this meet.
