NEW YORK (Reuters) -Canadian teen sensation Summer McIntosh is coming for American legend Katie Ledecky's crown as the swimming portion of the World Aquatics Championships kicks off in Singapore on Sunday, marking a tantalising new chapter of their rivalry.
Ledecky has kept a tight grip on the 800 metres freestyle, winning four Olympic golds and hoping to become the first swimmer to win seven world titles in a single event when she takes on the distance in Singapore.
In May, she shattered her own world record, bettering the mark she set nine years previous.
"I've always approached each race with a mindset that something like that could happen," Ledecky told the outlet SwimSwam after the race.
"Even as that didn't happen for many, many years, I still maintain that approach."
Only the 18-year-old McIntosh appears capable of standing in her path at worlds. She came within two seconds of the 28-year-old American's mark last month, signalling the chance that fans could soon see a changing of the guard.
She famously ended Ledecky's 13-year unbeaten streak in the event in 2024, when she bested the American by nearly six seconds at a sectionals meeting in Orlando, Florida.
"Anytime I get to race Katie, it's a learning experience and it's always a good race," she told reporters this month. "We bring the best out of each other."
McIntosh completed one of the greatest weeks in swimming history with a hat-trick of world records in June, becoming the first to break three different individual long-course records in one meet since American Michael Phelps in 2008.
She broke the world marks in the 200m and 400m individual medleys, as well as the 400m freestyle, another event where she will face off against Ledecky in Singapore.
McIntosh and Ledecky finished second and third on the podium, respectively, in the 400m at the Paris Olympic Games, behind Australian Ariarne Titmus, who is not competing at worlds.
McIntosh's goal in Singapore is to become the first since Phelps in 2007 to win five solo golds at a single World Aquatics Championships, with the 200m butterfly, 200m medley and 400m freestyle also on her agenda.
She hopes to compete in five individual events at the Los Angeles 2028 Games, as well.
"I'm trying to see this new challenge and see if I can do five events individually and how well I can do in them and how I can manage it... doing that run through now, three years out, is definitely something that will give me lots of confidence," she said.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
