Lonnie Pallister Breaks Down Her Historic 800m Free Battle

Lani Pallister's favorite race of her career is not one she won. It is the 800 free at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore, where she finished second to Katie Ledecky in 8:05. Katie Hoff Anderson and Elizabeth Beisel ask the Olympic gold medalist why that race, out of everything she has swum, is the one she would pick.

Her answer is about belief as much as speed. No one expected her to be part of that story, and proving to herself that she belonged there, and that she is capable of more, is what made it special. She also thinks the race did something bigger for the sport by putting women's distance swimming at the front of people's minds. As a distance swimmer, she admits she understands why crowds walk out before the 800 and 1500, but in Singapore three women were within 0.2 of each other for 750 meters. As she puts it, "the three of us are the only girls that have ever been under 8:10."

She describes the scene in the stands, with the Australians shocked that she was that close, the Americans cheering a Ledecky win and the Europeans in between stunned by the whole thing. Beisel, who was there, calls it one of her favorite races she has ever seen. Lani explains why all three times would have won the Olympic final in 2024, what it was like watching Ledecky win the Paris 1500 by a lap while she had COVID, and why the men's distance events have been so exciting for so long.

The full conversation with Lani, including her move to Dean Boxall, the vomit bag Australian officials now carry for her and her new apartment in Brisbane, is on the Unfiltered Waters channel and wherever you listen to podcasts.

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