After overcoming Ledecky and posting new Asian record, China's freestyle ace is eyeing more success in Singapore

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.

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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.

"I always love competing against the world's best. To go against them makes me excited and helps me push myself to go faster, for sure," said Li, who's added an 11th world championships medal to her resume with Sunday's runner-up finish.

As the best female swimmer at the worlds, Ledecky shook hands with Li after the race, gave her a pat on the shoulder during the medal ceremony and acknowledged her Chinese challenger's progress with respect.

"I was a little too focused on the race on one side," said Ledecky, who's racked up 27 world championships medals to tie with her retired countryman Ryan Lochte as the second on the all-time medal list, only behind legend Michael Phelps' whopping total of 33.

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"I missed Li on the other side of me, but kudos to her for getting in there. She's been a great competitor all these years. Happy to get the medal. Really fast field. I think the fastest field, first through fourth, we've ever had."

Ledecky was correct about the historic nature of the race.

Entering the evening, McIntosh, Australia's reigning Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus and Ledecky were the only women to ever break 3:59, but the results from Li and fourth-placed Aussie Lani Pallister have moved them to fourth and fifth, respectively, in the rankings of fastest 400m free performances in history.

From her sensational international debut in 2017, to reaching the all-time top-5 this year, Li's navigated through anything but still waters, having to battle hard against injuries, conditioning issues and a slump in results during a tough three-year struggle since the end of 2018.

Born in Baoding, Hebei province, to parents who were both elite swimmers, Li always had fun in the pool, since the age of four when she began swimming.

She soon realized there was, perhaps, a bright future ahead of her after collecting three medals from her maiden world championships outing in Budapest, Hungary, at just 15 years old.

Yet, the challenge from within — her lack of strength and endurance to keep up with her physical growth — slowed down Li's progress, underlined by early knockouts from the heats in both her strength events, the 400m and 800m, at her second worlds in 2019.

That was followed by further setbacks due to injuries and fatigue caused by overtraining that went beyond her young body's limit.

So desperate to get back to winning ways, Li tried everything, from distance running to road cycling, to improve her aerobic capacity whenever she was not in the water — hitting yet another hump after breaking her arm in a fall while cycling in early 2020, casting a shadow on her Tokyo Games preparation.

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She refused to give up, citing inspiration from an earlier Ledecky interview that the difference between a great athlete and an Olympic champion lies in "resilience when facing setbacks".

She pushed through the injury, wearing protective gear on her arm to keep honing her stroke in the pool and continuing to run laps at a high-altitude camp in Southwest China's Yunnan province to strengthen her heart and lungs.

The hard work paid dividends on her Olympic debut in Tokyo, where Li finished third in the 400m final to win China's first female freestyle Olympic medal in the event, and was part of the quartet that won a historic 4x200m free relay gold.

"I believe that I haven't reached my full potential yet," said Li, who has signed up to a hectic schedule, bidding to swim all four individual free events from 200m to 1,500m in Singapore.

"I am still looking at the top of the podium."

Contact the writer at sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn