Following her exploits in the 1500m freestyle event, all eyes were on American swimming sensation Katie Ledecky's performance in the 400m freestyle. However, she finished second in a tightly contested race where her primary rival, Canada's Summer McIntosh, won the event at the Fort Lauderdale Open on Thursday.

Three-time Olympic gold medallist McIntosh touched the wall first with a time of 3:58.91, beating nine-time Olympic gold medallist Ledecky, who finished second and clocked 3:59.02. Emma Weyant, a two-time Olympic champion, was the last podium finisher after finishing in 4:07.03.

Interestingly, the timings registered by McIntosh and Ledecky were the fastest in the world this year. This was McIntosh's first event of the weekend, while Ledecky was entering the race after winning the 1500m freestyle on Wednesday and also registering the fifth-fastest time in history.

Overall, McIntosh and Ledecky were inseparable during the race. The maximum difference in timing between the two swimmers was .43, which the Canadian had during the halfway stage.

There was hardly any difference between the swimmers during the down stretch as McIntosh had a 0.08 lead at 250m, .12 difference at 300m, a 0.08 at 350m, and .11 at the finish.

Other than being the world record holder in the 400m freestyle, Summer McIntosh is also the reigning World Champion in this event. Similarly, Katie Ledecky is a former world record holder and has also secured four gold medals in the 2016 Olympics, one of which was in the 400m freestyle.

Katie Ledecky was high on confidence after 1500m freestyle victory

Although Ledecky missed out on the 400m showdown, she was happy to script history in her star 1500m freestyle event at the 2026 Fort Lauderdale Open earlier this week. The American won by 77 seconds to extend her 15-year win streak.

Following her fantastic win in the event, Ledecky's confidence in her abilities was reaffirmed. "Yeah, I am happy about it," the distance legend told SwimSwam. "I feel like I'm getting reps in the mid-20s consistently right now, so that's great."

"I think I have swum something like three or four of my top five or six times in the last year, so I'm really happy. Just wanted to lock in with consistent splits, and I felt good the whole way. I know that training's been going well. I just have a lot of confidence in the shape that I am in, so I just wanted to get out there and see if I could push the pace and stay consistent the whole race," Ledecky added.

On Saturday night, Katie Ledecky capped off her weekend at Fort Lauderdale by dominating the 800m freestyle. Her time of 8:12.66 earned her a 28-second victory over runner-up Katie Grimes (8:40.80).

Read more about your favorite swimmers at Swimmer's Club!

Written by

Atrayo Bhattacharya

Edited by

Yask Kotak