Locator: 48759LEDECKY.
Updates
August 6, 2025: it was all about Ledecky this summer, but The New York Times / The Athletic chose to focus on Summer McIntosh. Link here.
Summer McIntosh, Canadian, attends the Ontario Virtual School (OVS) as a Grade 11 student. She chose OVS due to the flexibility it offers to accommodate her intense training and competition schedule. She has been with OVS for a few years, initially completing her Grade 11 courses and now working towards her Grade 12 diploma. Ontario, Canada. In most Canadian provinces, high school (also known as secondary school) typically runs from Grade 9 to Grade 12. Grade 11, therefore, is the second to last year of high school, often referred to as the "junior year."
Original Post
Full race here: link to YouTube.
A reader pointed out that the headline above (from the link above) is wrong. In fact, from The New York Times: 
From my perspective, both the headline above (wrong) and the NYTimes suffer because the authors in both cases tried to pack in too much in too little space, in an attempt to dilute the BIG story (Ledecky) by including the #2 and #3 finishers in that event. Sometimes it's better just to say it clearly and succinctly.
My experiences with ChatGPT is that ChatGPT is much better at providing unambiguous reporting.
YouTube:
From the linked article:
Katie Ledecky's historic reign continues after she beat rival Summer McIntosh in one of the biggest non-Olympic swimming races during Saturday's women's 800-meter freestyle at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.
The race, dubbed "the biggest race of this century, men or women, from outside of the Olympic format" by NBC swimming analyst Rowdy Gaines this week, lived up to the hype as Ledecky and McIntosh, slotted into lanes 3 and 4, battled to a dramatic finish. The only surprise: Australia's Lani Pallister made it a thrilling three-woman race instead of a duel between only Ledecky and Canada's McIntosh.
McIntosh had the narrow lead with 100 meters left before Ledecky pulled away in the final 50 meters and won in 8:05.62, narrowly beating Pallister (8:05.98). McIntosh was third in 8:07.29 in what was called the greatest 800 freestyle ever. It was the first time two women had ever gone below 8:06.00 in the same 800 free with all three well below 8:08.00.
