Summer McIntosh hands Katie Ledecky first 800m freestyle final ...

The greatest women's swimmer of all time suffered a shock loss on Thursday night (8 February) as Katie Ledecky was knocked off the top spot of the 800m freestyle podium at USA Swimming's 2024 Southern Zone South Sectionals by Canada's Summer McIntosh.

Ledecky clocked 8:17.12, but was beaten to the line by McIntosh, who destroyed the Canadian record previously held by Brittany MacLean by nearly nine seconds.

McIntosh's 8:11.39 made her the second-best performer of all time behind world record holder Ledecky, who now owns the 16 fastest 800m freestyle times ever. Ledecky had owned the 29 best times until McIntosh went under 13 of them.

The 17-year-old McIntosh also broke the Commonwealth record previously held by Australia's Ariarne Titmus (8:13.59), and became the first woman to defeat Ledecky in a final since the latter was 13 years old in 2010.

Ledecky, who is still favoured to win at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, last finished second in any 800m free race in 2019, when her U.S. teammate Leah Smith out-touched her by 0.19 seconds in a World Championships heat.

Her world record, set at Rio 2016, stands at 8:04.79.