The women’s 400-meter freestyle, dubbed the “race of the century,” pitted American Katie Ledecky, a 10-time Olympic medalist, against Australian Ariarne Titmus and Canadian Summer McIntosh.
The 400-meter freestyle is not Ledecky’s strongest event; she last won gold at the 2022 world championships and lost to Titmus at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Although it’s been a while since Ledecky set and broke her own world record in the event twice from 2014 to 2016, she remains a formidable competitor. In recent years, Titmus and the teenage McIntosh have traded world-record times—Titmus set a new record in 2022 at the Australian championships at 3:56.40, which McIntosh surpassed a year later at 3:56.08. Titmus, the defending Olympic champion in the event, has held the current world record since July 2023, at 3:55.38.
The highly anticipated matchup at the Paris Olympics began with the heats earlier in the day, with Ledecky qualifying with the fastest time, Titmus with the second fastest, and McIntosh the fourth fastest. The enthusiastic crowd foreshadowed the excitement surrounding the race later in the evening. “It’s crazy that the crowd is so loud for a heat session,” Titmus remarked.
Ledecky received the loudest cheers when she was introduced but maintained a focused expression behind her dark goggles, never waving or acknowledging the crowd, instead concentrating on the upcoming race. She was first off the blocks with a 0.68 but quickly fell to fourth after the first 50 meters and remained there through the first 200 meters. She then moved up to third while Titmus and McIntosh held first and second positions, respectively, throughout the race.
“I would have liked to have been a little faster tonight, and I’ve been faster a few times this season, but you can’t complain with the medals,” Ledecky said. “The top three would probably all say that we would have liked to have been a little faster. I’m so happy I got my hand to the wall for a medal. I get two days of rest so I can try to be better the rest of the week.”
Titmus downplayed any rivalry, saying, “I’m just happy to get the result for myself, and I’m so honored to be part of the race and be alongside legends like Katie. I look up to her so much as an athlete, and it is certainly not a rivalry beyond the races. I really respect her as a person. Her longevity in the sport. It’s nice to catch up and have a chat.”
Ledecky’s bronze medal was followed by a silver in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay for the U.S. women, behind Australia, while China earned bronze. The U.S. team of Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske, and Simone Manuel held on to finish 1.28 seconds behind the Australians, after trailing in fourth place for the first 200 meters. Manuel, who has been open about her struggles with overtraining syndrome during the Tokyo Games and now trains with Michael Phelps’ coach Bob Bowman, found an extra burst of energy in the last 20 meters to out-touch Wu Qingfeng, who had overtaken the U.S. in the next-to-last lap. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in the anchor position, so I definitely was a bit more nervous for that race than I would have liked to be, but hopefully I can build from that,” Manuel said. “It just feels good to be back here, honestly. I didn’t know if I would ever be performing at this level again, so just to have the full-circle moment of being on this relay again from 2021 to now, but just in a happier and healthier place, I think is really special.”
The Australian women have defeated the U.S. in four of the past five Olympics; the Americans last won the relay in 2000 in Sydney. The goal, Manuel said, set at the start of training camp once the U.S. Olympic team was named, was to set an American record, which the team did.
The history is reversed for the men in this relay event; the U.S. men have dominated the race at the Olympics, missing gold only four times in the 14 instances it has been held since 1964. The U.S. men hold the world record in the event, set at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 with Michael Phelps swimming the opening leg.
Australia came into Paris as the world champions from 2023, while Italy are the silver medalists from Tokyo and the silver medalists from the last two world championships. The Australian team got off to a slow start in the first leg, touching in sixth place before the first switch-off, and dropped as far as seventh before Kyle Chalmers narrowed the gap in the last 100 meters. But they still couldn’t catch the Americans and finished 1.07 seconds behind them for silver. The U.S. team of Jack Alexy, Chris Guiliano, Hunter Armstrong, and Caeleb Dressel continued the American streak in the event and led after the first 100 meters, never looking back. The Italians rallied from seventh place after the first 100 meters to toggle with the Australians between second and third, and ultimately fell behind them in the last 50 meters.
For Dressel, the win is a sweet reward after taking eight months off after Tokyo, where he struggled to define himself outside of winning swim races and found himself battling mental health challenges. In February, he and wife Meghan welcomed their first child, whom they brought to Paris, and with his family’s support, he’s said he learned to quiet the noise that became so damaging after Tokyo. His emotions overwhelmed him when his latest gold medal, his eighth from the Olympics, was placed around his neck. “You can’t explain this moment until you’re on the podium watching the flag go up,” he said.