800 m freestyle, women

What to remember

The 800 m freestyle is the race that made Katie Ledecky's name: at the 2012 London Olympics, her international debut, she won it against expectations. On May 3, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, at a TYR Pro Swim Series meet, she swam it in 8 min 04.12 s in a long course pool.

The American is a distance freestyle specialist, and in 2015, in Kazan, she won four individual titles at the same World Championships. She formerly held the long course 400 m freestyle world record and the short course 800 m record.

The 800 m freestyle has an unusual timeline: the women's race has been Olympic since 1968 and part of the World Championships since the first edition in 1973, while men have only raced it at the World Championships since 2001 and at the Olympics since 2020. In long course, the men's record belongs to China's Zhang Lin.