Katie Ledecky of Team United States and Summer Mcintosh of Team Canada compete in the Women's 400m Freestyle Heats on day one of the Fukuoka 2023 World Aquatics Championships on July 23, 2023 in Fukuoka, Japan.Adam Pretty/Getty Images
It’s being billed as The Race of the Century, a confluence of speed and talent so rarely seen at one time, in one pool, that it began to generate buzz in the swimming world months before the Paris Olympics were even set to open.
The showdown on Saturday involves Canada’s Summer McIntosh, American Katie Ledecky and Australia’s Ariarne Titmus facing off in the women’s 400-metre freestyle. It may produce a defining moment for these Games, even before they fully get under way.
McIntosh is a 17-year-old phenom who has burst onto the swimming scene, setting records and winning championships. Ledecky, 27, a seven-time gold medalist, is considered the best female swimmer in history. And Titmus, 23, is the defending Olympic champion.
They are three athletes at different stages of their careers. And each has arrived in Paris in top form.
Together they represent the three most recent world-record holders. Ledecky held it for more than seven years, until Titmus set it in 2022. McIntosh then eclipsed that mark in early 2023, before Titmus took it back less than four months later.
Add in New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather, 20, and the race involves four of the only five women in history to ever go below four minutes in that event. The fifth, Italy’s Federica Pellegrini, retired in 2021.
It is what former Australian Olympic swimmer and coach Brett Hawke calls a “stop-the-world” race.
“This is an epic clash of big-name talent,” Hawke said. “These women are on a different level than most of the people at the Olympics.”
McIntosh, front, and Ledecky, back, compete in the women's 400m freestyle finals during the Budapest 2022 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest on June 18, 2022.ATTILA KISBENEDEK/Getty Images
Women’s swimming has been waiting for this. The original Race of the Century in the sport came at the 2004 Athens Olympics, when a similar set of circumstances put a young Michael Phelps of the United States up against Australians Ian (The Thorpedo) Thorpe and Grant Hackett, along with Dutch superstar Pieter van den Hoogenband. Each are considered among the best swimmers in history.
Thorpe took gold, van den Hoogenband silver and Phelps bronze. Since that night, the swimming world has wondered when the women would see their own version.
No race since has lived up to the hype. But with veterans Ledecky and Titmus battling for supremacy while also trying to fend off younger world-class upstarts McIntosh and Fairweather, Saturday’s race has the ingredients.
The 400 freestyle exists on the border between sprint and endurance race. It is power and velocity, but sustained over eight lung-burning lengths of the pool, making it one of the most punishing events to attempt. When it began at the Olympics a century ago, no swimmer went below six minutes. Back then it probably wasn’t intended to be raced this fast; now it just is.
Titmus is the favourite for the gold, and holds the fastest time in the event over the past year, at 3 minutes 55.44 seconds, a mere .06 seconds behind her world record. Titmus has a margin of nearly three seconds over Ledecky’s recent best (3:58.35), and more compared with McIntosh (3:59.06) and Fairweather (3:59.44).
But a lot can happen under the sport’s brightest lights. Swimmers can rise to the occasion, or falter in the moment. The Olympics have a way of doing that.
“It will be an insane race,” said Canadian Brent Hayden, who won bronze at the 2012 London Olympics and has trained with McIntosh.
“Anything can happen. You could be the most prepared that you ever could be, and then it just doesn’t go the way you wanted it to for some reason. It could just be like your body was just not firing.”
Hayden and Hawke were both in Athens competing in other events when the original Race of the Century took place. They remember how everything seemed to stop when the swimmers took their marks.
“We knew this race was brewing. And it was kind of like a battle of the titans, because you had all these guys coming through at the same time. They seemed like these giants of swimming, the talent of talent,” Hawke said.
“It was cool to be able to say I was there,” Hayden said. “I wish I was in the race. But still it was cool to actually witness that one live.”
Though the 2024 version has generated a lot of talk – around the pool this week several swimmers were more than happy to chat about it – those competing in it are being careful about what they say.
For McIntosh, the 400-metre freestyle isn’t her signature race. That will be the 400-metre individual medley on Monday, in which she holds the world record. But Saturday’s race will give her the first up-close glimpse of her biggest rivals at these Olympics.
“It’s pretty incredible that three of the previous or current world-record holders are swimming in the event together, along with so many other amazing women in that 400 freestyle,” McIntosh said. “I’m really excited going in and since it is day one, it’s a great way to start off this meet for sure.”
Not surprisingly, Ledecky said she is looking forward to it.
“I like my chances,” Ledecky said. “I’m going to give it my best shot. It’s obviously a great field, top to bottom.”
McIntosh moved to Florida few years ago to train and Ledecky said she’s become more familiar with the Canadian’s races.
“Summer being in the U.S., training in the U.S., we’ve raced a lot the past couple of years. It’s always fun to race the best.”
Titmus is confident as well, but said the race brings an element of mystery with it being held on the first night of competition.
“Everyone’s going into it fresh – no one knows what form anyone’s in,” Titmus told reporters. “I feel like out of all my races, I know how to race it the best.”