Li looks for ripple effect

A long three-year struggle, a broken arm and countless training sessions that ended in tears — it all felt worthwhile for Li Bingjie after the final 30 meters on Sunday.

Riding the momentum of arguably the strongest 50m split of her career, the Chinese swimmer finally surmounted an obstacle that has stood in her way for eight years — her idol and long-term rival Katie Ledecky. Li finished ahead the nine-time Olympic gold medalist for the first time in an individual race since their first encounter in 2017.

She did so by overtaking Ledecky in the last 30 meters in the 400m freestyle final at her fifth World Aquatics Championships, clocking a new PB and Asian record of 3 min and 58.21sec, driven by a scintillating 28.67s final 50m dash, the fastest split in the final field.

Outperforming the undisputed queen of distance events, however, was not enough for Li to reach the top of the podium, with Canada's "Wonder Girl" Summer McIntosh leading all the way to secure her fifth world title — and first in freestyle — after touching in 3:56.26 to edge Li out by a margin of nearly two seconds.

That's the cruel nature of competitive sports at the highest level, and what has kept Li motivated to keep going after, once again, coming up just short on her hunt for gold.

"I've tried so hard to keep up with her, and to compete as best as I could against her, since I first raced her in 2017. So, it means the world to me to finally beat her in a race," said Li, who's also qualified for Wednesday's 1,500m free final, offering up a chance to challenge Ledecky again.

"It was a surprise for me, though. I swam according to my strategy, and then, in the last split, I realized the gap between myself and her wasn't too big, so, I thought: 'Let's give it a go'.

"She's maybe not at her peak now, but this result is still very significant and meaningful to me.

"I've looked up to her as an idol since I was young. This result today gave me a huge confidence boost.