Katie Ledecky finally (almost) found her match

The two greatest women's swimmers alive went head-to-head in what might be their defining race. Plus: TRACK BEEF, an all-time performance from an all-time soccer star, and the Tour de France Femmes.

On Friday I wrote about how I just moved to Connecticut, home to exactly one pro sports team, the Connecticut Sun. On Saturday, the Sun were reportedly sold for $325 million to a Boston businessman who plans to move the team to Boston, although the deal and move still have to be finalized.

Honestly, I’m a little bit hurt. I did not think my vibes were so aggressively rancid that I could chase a pro sports team out of the state within 48 hours of my arrival. I am reflecting on the situation and embarking upon a self-improvement journey that will hopefully keep the Double-A Hartford Yard Goats and the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship in-state.

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A swim for generations

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, I took a picture of Katie Ledecky winning the 800m freestyle. In the picture, Ledecky appears to be swimming by herself, but she’s actually racing against the seven next-best 800m swimmers in the world. They just weren’t close enough to be in the frame.

At the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore, the picture looked a lot different. The greatest swimmer of all time finally had company.

Ledecky has not fallen off in the last decade, but now she has to deal with Canada’s Summer McIntosh, the 18-year-old almost certain to succeed her as the greatest female swimmer alive. Last Saturday they pushed each other for 700 meters, before Ledecky pulled away for what might be the greatest win of her incredible career:

• McIntosh actually had the lead at 700 meters, the only time in the entire race that Ledecky trailed. But McIntosh’s final lap was her second-slowest split of the race (30.95 seconds), while Ledecky’s final lap was her fastest (29.53.)

• Awkward place to mention this, but … McIntosh didn’t even get silver in the end. Australia’s Lani Pallister, who finished sixth at the Olympics last year, smashed her personal best by five seconds and squeezed in between Ledecky and McIntosh. She’s not getting the recognition she deserves in all the Ledecky-McIntosh discussion.

• Ledecky’s time (8:05.62) was faster than her gold medal-winning swims from the 2012, 2020 and 2024 Olympics, as well as her six previous World Championship-winning swims. She set the world record in this event in May:

• McIntosh was the first person to threaten Ledecky in the 800m in literally half a lifetime. Ledecky went undefeated in the 800m in between 2010, when she was 13 years old, and last February, when McIntosh beat her in a regional event in Orlando. Ledecky used to have the top 29 times in history; after McIntosh went 8:05.07 in June, Ledecky now only has the top two.

• For her part, McIntosh beat Ledecky in the 400m freestyle and won three other gold medals (the 200m butterfly and the two individual medleys) at the World Aquatics Championships. It wouldn’t be surprising to see McIntosh eventually set the 800m world record.

• This race felt like a flashpoint in their two careers. The 800m is where Ledecky and McIntosh’s skillsets overlap. And with McIntosh on the rise and Ledecky (maybe???) beginning her decline due to age, we may have just witnessed the best battle we'll ever see between the two greatest swimmers alive.

• All told, it might have been Ledecky’s greatest race ever. She has always been a jaw-dropping athlete to watch, even when she was winning medals and setting records by essentially competing against herself and the clock. But sports are meant to be head-to-head competitions. It was incredible to watch a race that Ledecky had an actual chance of losing — and even more incredible to watch her find a way to win it.

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Copa-cetic

Marta didn’t score any goals in her first four matches at the Copa América Femenina, but she still got the Golden Ball as the tournament’s MVP. The 39-year-old legend is no longer scoring goals constantly — just when it counts.

The six-time FIFA World Player of the Year came into the final against Colombia in the 82nd minute. In the 97th minute, she smashed a game-tying missile on the final kick of regulation, a 25-yard volley that hit the goalkeeper’s hands and still blasted into the back of the net with unstoppable power.

Then in extra time, Marta scored a go-ahead goal in the 106th minute. She seemed to bail on a header attempt before contorting her body to get the side of her foot on the ball.

Brazil won 5-4 on penalty kicks. I’m not mentioning the result of Marta’s penalty kick because it doesn’t fit my narrative.

• Colombia also deserves credit for a truly incredible final. After Marta’s second goal, Leicy Santos tied the match at 4 with this incredible free kick goal:

• But Colombia somehow went unpenalized for the most red card-y red card in the history of red cards, so Brazil deserved the W.

• Brazil has now won the Copa América Femenina nine out of ten times, and five in a row. The last (and only) time they lost was 2006, when the tournament didn’t have the Copa América branding, the whole tournament was played at one venue and the final had a listed attendance of 300.

• Marta supposedly retired from international play after winning silver at last year’s Olympics, but came back for this tournament. This would be a hell of a way to go out if she’s finally done.

• But you know what would be a better way to go out? Continuing to play for two more years through 2027, when Brazil hosts the first ever Women’s World Cup in South America.

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🎶From the Mountains … to the Mountains … 🎶

Back in April, I wrote about Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s win at Paris-Roubaix, speculating that perhaps the converted mountain biker had a chance to win the Tour de France Femmes. I wish I’d been able to put down bets on that! Ferrand-Prévot won back-to-back mountain stages on the final two days of the Tour to become the first French champion of the relatively new race:

• Ferrand-Prévot has executed her career plan perfectly. After splitting her time amongst multiple disciplines for most of her career, she decided to focus on mountain biking in 2018. She won four of the next five World Championships, then announced that she would stick with mountain biking through the Paris Olympics in hopes of winning Olympic gold on home soil before returning to road racing. Her goal upon switching was to win the Tour de France.

• PFP has also won world championships in cyclocross, gravel racing, and both marathon (3-5 hours of racing) and short track (15-30 minutes) mountain biking. Pauline needs to quit slacking — she still needs to win championships in BMX, track cycling, artistic cycling, and cycle polo.

• To be clear, mountain biking is a very different sport from road biking in the mountains. What makes it “mountain bike racing” is the off-road terrain, which includes biking over rocks, logs, jumps and just generally very rough terrain. The course Ferrand-Prévot won Olympic gold on last year was 19.1 miles long with 2,527 feet of elevation gain (technically, seven laps of a 2.73-mile course with 361 feet of elevation gain.) Stage 8 of the TdF Femmes was 70 miles long with about 8,500 feet of elevation gain over three separate climbs … and that was after seven days of racing, with another mountain stage the next day. Mountain biking and road cycling require very different skill sets and strategies. Winning Olympic gold in MTB and the Tour de France the very next year is inhuman.

• Though the men’s race has been taking place since 1903, Tour de France Femmes is actually a relatively new race, with the first edition taking place in 2022. There have been other women’s stage races in France, but they struggled financially, and the organization that owns the Tour de France, Amaury Sport Organisation, wasn’t willing to them the TdF branding. As dumb as it is, the prestige lent by the Tour de France name is a huge boost. Would I be writing about some other bike race if it didn’t have the famous name and the yellow jersey?

• Ferrand-Prévot’s win ended a drought for the host nation: No French rider had won the men’s or women’s edition of the Tour de France since Bernard Hinault in 1985. Huge crowds turned out to watch her win, and she was on the cover of every French newspaper … and at least one American one, too!

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Quick Hits

• Great news, the two fastest men in America absolutely hate each other. Noah Lyles stared down Kenny Bednarek after winning the 200m at the U.S. Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Bednarek shoved him, and the two kept jawing at each other through their post-race interview as NBC’s Lewis Johnson held a microphone between their mouths:

  You know what, we love to see a real sports rivalry! Keep getting gold and silver, I don’t really care who does what!

• Last year, the men’s BMX racing competition was the only podium sweep of the Olympics, which I bring up because an entirely different French guy, Arthur Pilard, won the BMX racing world championship Sunday in Copenhagen. French people: They love bikes!

• The International Jump Rope Union held its world championships in Kawasaki, Japan, revealing that there are dozens of increasingly complex jump rope categories for which to give out awards. Many of the winning routines are available on the IJRU’s Youtube channel. Here’s the winning routine by American jumper (roper?) Lauren Ellis in the “single rope individual freestyle” competition, which appears to consist of one competitor going absolutely nuts with a rope:

• MLB tried playing a baseball game at Bristol Motor Speedway, and in classic NASCAR fashion, there was a long weather delay and the event had to be postponed. Reports from the scene depicted a Mad Max-style environment where the only food available was uncheesed nachos.

• Trinity Rodman returned to NWSL play after missing three months with a back injury and scored the game-winning goal in stoppage time:

• The children are becoming too good at sports. 16-year-old high schooler Cooper Lutkenhaus finished second in the 800m at the U.S. Outdoor Track & Field Championships, earning a qualifying spot in next month’s World Championships, while Chinese 12-year old Yu Zidi finished fourth in multiple events at the World Aquatics Championships and earned bronze for swimming in a relay.

• Vermont Green FC, a soccer team striving for environmental justice, completed an undefeated season to secure the USL2 championship, and also probably should win a championship for their extremely Vermont tifo:

• The Yankees lost 13-12 to the Marlins in a game where three guys they traded for at the deadline allowed seven runs in 2.1 innings, and a fourth guy they traded for at the deadline committed a critical error in the ninth inning. Brian Cashman has been the general manager since I was eight years old.

• The Basketball Tournament was won in Wichita State’s basketball arena by AfterShocks, a team hypothetically composed of former Wichita State players. However, less than half the team actually played for Wichita State. I demand an investigation.

On Deck

It’s time for the second-most important event in sports: The World Games, the G-League for Olympic-adjacent sports that aren’t actually in the Olympics. I’ll have a full-ish explainer Thursday!