An Evolution: Lani Pallister Has Shown her Real Powers to the World in 2025
From the World Championships in Singapore to her recent performances at the World Cup, it has been a spectacular 2025 for Australian Lani Pallister.
The year started with a coaching change, as Pallister shifted her training to St Peters Western and working with coach Dean Boxall, one of the top mentors in the sport. With the support of her new training environment, Pallister set new personal bests from the 200-meter freestyle to the 1500 freestyle, both in long course and short course, and she established herself as one of the fastest swimmers the sport has seen in her events.
Pallister opened her 2025 season in April at the Australian Open Championships, which marked her first time back in action following the 2024 World Short Course Championships in Budapest, where she won the gold medal in 800 freestyle. It was a good test to measure how her training was going and to prepare for the Aussie World Champs Trials in June. Pallister delivered in a big way.
During her appearance in Adelaide, she became the seventh female swimmer to break the four-minute barrier in 400 freestyle by clocking 3:59.72. Her previous best was 4:01.75 and the 3:59.72 didn’t last long. In the final of the World Championships in Singapore, she placed place, going 3:58.87 to become the No. 5 performer in the history of the event.
Her improvements in the 800 and 1500 freestyles have been even more impressive. In the 800, Pallister has gone from 8:15.11 in 2023 to 8:10.84 at the Aussie Trials to 8:05.98 for silver at Worlds. In the 1500, she dropped almost 10 seconds. Before the 2025 season, her personal best was 15:48.96 from the World Championships in Budapest in 2022, when she won the bronze medal and finished behind Americans Katie Ledecky and Katie Grimes. In June, Pallister swam 15:39.14, which is No. 4 all-time.
While the aforementioned performances were achieved in long course, Pallister also excelled in the smaller pool.
During the World Cup series, Pallister starred across the three stops. In Westmont (Ill.), she was impressive with a 3:51.97 in the 400 freestyle to break Summer McIntosh’s World Cup record. And on the last night of action in Toronto, she won the 800 freestyle in a stunning time of 7:54.00, which took more than three seconds off Ledecky’s world record of 7:57.42.
It’s going to be exciting to follow Pallister’s journey to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where she figures to be a leading contender for distance-freestyle gold.
