Katie Ledecky and 16-year-old Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh are slated to go head-to-head at a Pro Series swim meet in Fort Lauderdale, airing on CNBC, NBCSports.com/live, the NBC Sports app and Peacock this week.
Ledecky and McIntosh are each entered in five events, but they share two of them: the 200m butterfly on Thursday and the 200m freestyle on Friday.
Peacock airs live finals coverage on Thursday and Friday at 6 p.m. ET. Highlights air Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. on CNBC, NBCSports.com/live and the NBC Sports app.
Swimmers are preparing for the U.S. Championships in late June and the world championships in July in Fukuoka, Japan.
McIntosh is the reigning world champion in the 200m fly, which Ledecky does not swim at championship meets (which makes it possible that Ledecky does not qualify for Thursday’s A final).
Neither Ledecky nor McIntosh swam the 200m free at last June’s world championships, though Ledecky was fifth and McIntosh ninth at the Tokyo Olympics.
At last June’s worlds, Ledecky and McIntosh were the top female swimmers.
Ledecky swept her four races -- 400m, 800m and 1500m frees, plus the 4x200m free relay. McIntosh won the 200m fly and 400m individual medley, both in world junior record times, and placed second to Ledecky in the 400m free.
They’ve since met at three more meets.
In October, McIntosh edged Ledecky in a 400m free in a Toronto short-course pool (25 meters, rather than Olympic-size 50-meter pools) by eight hundredths of a second.
In November, Ledecky returned the favor, breaking the 800m free short-course world record in Indianapolis and defeating McIntosh by 10.3 seconds. They also met in a 200m free, with Ledecky placing second and McIntosh fifth.
In December, they returned to an Olympic-size pool at the U.S. Open in Greensboro, North Carolina. Ledecky won the 400m free by eight hundredths over McIntosh to extend a decade-long win streak in freestyle races of 400 meters or longer in U.S. pools.
Also entered in this week’s meet: individual Olympic gold medalists Bobby Finke, Chase Kalisz, Ryan Murphy, Lilly King, Simone Manuel and Penny Oleksiak.
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