Summer Ann McIntosh (born August 18, 2006) is a Canadian competitive swimmer.[1] She is a three-time Olympic champion, four-time World Aquatics champion, and two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist. Noted for her strength in medley and butterfly events, she is the world record holder in the 400 metre individual medley,[2] and also holds the Olympic and textile records in the 200 metre butterfly event,[3] and the Olympic record in the 200 metre individual medley.[4]
McIntosh first drew recognition when, at age 14, she was the youngest member of the Canadian team for the 2020 Summer Olympics, where she achieved a fourth-place finish in the 400 metre freestyle.[5][6] The following year she became the youngest World Aquatics champion in swimming in over a decade, and the first Canadian to win two gold medals at a single World Championships, for which she was dubbed a "teen swimming sensation."[7][8][9] In March and April 2023, in the span of five days, she set her first and second world records, in the 400 metre freestyle and 400 individual medley events, at the Canadian national trials.[10][2] McIntosh's performance at the 2024 Summer Olympics, in which she won four individual medals (three gold and one silver),[4] further increased her fame, with Time dubbing it the "Summer of Summer".[11]
McIntosh has broken over 50 age group national swimming records.[17] In May 2021, McIntosh swam a 4:05.13 in the 400 metre freestyle, the fastest time ever by a 14-year-old swimmer worldwide.[18] As of March 2023[update] she holds the world record in the women's long course 400m IM.[19]
2021 season
As part of the 2021 Canadian Olympic swimming trials in Toronto, McIntosh won the 200 metre freestyle event over training partner Penny Oleksiak, with a personal best time of 1:56.19, which also marked the fastest time ever by a 14-year-old swimmer worldwide.[20] This qualified her for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. McIntosh followed this up with a win in the 800 metre freestyle event, in another personal best time of 8:29.49. She was the youngest person named to the Canadian Olympic team.[5][21][22][23]
In her first event, McIntosh finished fourth in the 400 metre freestyle, breaking the Canadian national record with a time of 4:02.42.[6] She advanced to the semifinals of the women's 200m freestyle, but placed ninth there and thus missed the final. She was part of the Canadian team for the 4 × 200 metre relay, along with Oleksiak, Rebecca Smith and Kayla Sanchez. They set a new Canadian record in the event final, placing fourth.[24] McIntosh's last event was the 800 metre freestyle, where she placed eleventh and thus did not advance to the final.[25]
McIntosh was part of the Canadian team for the 2021 World Short Course Championships, and won a silver medal as part of the 4×100 metre medley relay, where she swam in the preliminaries for Canada as the team finished in second in the final. She then helped the Canadian team in the 4×200 metre freestyle relay, swimming the first leg as Canada won gold. McIntosh won her first individual medal of the competition when she won the silver in the 400 metre freestyle race. She was third at the halfway mark but passed Siobhán Haughey and held on to the second position, finishing behind Li Bingjie.[27] McIntosh had set a Canadian record in the 800 metre qualifying, but she withdrew from the event to focus on the 400 and women's relay events.[28][29]
2022 season
On March 4, 2022, McIntosh swam the 400 metre individual medley at a preparatory event for the Canadian swimming trials, recording a time of 4:29.12. This was both a national and Commonwealth record, and the third-fastest of all time, as well as the fastest time recorded by any swimmer since Katinka Hosszú's winning time at the 2016 Summer Olympics.[30] At the national swimming trials, McIntosh won titles in the 200 metre and 400 metre freestyle, the 200 metre butterfly, and the 400 metre individual medley, before scratching from the 800 metre freestyle.[31]
McIntosh made her senior FINA World Aquatics Championships debut at the 2022 edition in Budapest, Hungary, with her first event being the 400 metre freestyle. She finished second in the final, taking the silver medal with a new personal best and national record time of 3:59.39. She was only the fourth woman in history to record a time of under four minutes.[32] McIntosh set another world junior record in the semi-final of the 200 metre butterfly with a 2:05.79 time, exceeding her own as-yet-unratified record from the Canadian swimming trials.[33] She broke the record again the following day, June 22, in the event final, claiming her first World title, the first medal of any colour for Canada in the event.[8] She was the first 15-year-old to win a World title since China's Ye Shiwen in 2011, and the youngest Canadian world champion in history, surpassing 18-year-old Victor Davis in 1982.[9][34] Later in that same session she participated in the event final of the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay, breaking another junior world record with a 1:54.79 opening leg, the second-fastest of any woman in the event behind Katie Ledecky of the United States. The Canadian team won the bronze medal.[8] In her final event, the 400 metre individual medley, McIntosh won her second gold medal of the championships, beating American Katie Grimes by 0.63 seconds. She became the first Canadian swimmer to win two gold medals at a single World Championships, and set a new record for the most medals won by a Canadian at a single World Championships (4), which would be tied later that same day by Penny Oleksiak and Kayla Sanchez.[7] As well, she was the youngest winner since Tracy Caulkins in 1978. McIntosh called the results "a dream come true", and praised Grimes, noting "she is around my age and she's a really tough competitor. So I'm looking forward to racing her and keep pushing myself."[35]
A month later, McIntosh was part of her first Commonwealth Games team, for the 2022 edition in Birmingham, England. She opted not to contest the 200 metre butterfly there, citing the need to focus on other events.[36] Heavily favoured in the 400 m medley, she won gold on the first day of the competition schedule, improving her world junior, Commonwealth, and national records to 4:29.01. She finished 7.77 seconds ahead of silver medallist Kiah Melverton, and was the first Canadian gold medallist of the Games.[37] McIntosh was then given the novel opportunity to participate in Canada's 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay team, with mainstay members like Oleksiak, Sanchez and Taylor Ruck absent, winning a bronze medal. She noted that she "didn't really know what to expect, the 100 free is not my main event so I just tried to put a good time down to set it up for the rest of the girls."[38] The next day she took her more customary place on the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay team, swimming the leadoff leg and helping take the silver medal.[39] Of this, she said she was "very proud."[40] On the fourth day, she competed in the 200 metre individual medley, a much more uncommon event for her than the 400 metre individual medley. McIntosh won the gold medal, defeating reigning World silver medallist Kaylee McKeown of Australia and setting a new world junior record. McIntosh noted that "the 200 IM is more of a sprinting event for me", adding "the only pressure I feel is what I put on myself. The only thing that matters is my expectations."[41] With the result, McIntosh recorded one of the top four results of 2022 in five different events.[42] On the final day of the swimming competitions, McIntosh won two more silver medals, finishing behind Ariarne Titmus in the 400 metre freestyle while lowering her own national record and then swimming the freestyle leg of the 4 × 100 metre medley relay, typically performed for the Canadian team by the absent Oleksiak.[43][44]
Following the conclusion of the Commonwealth Games, Swimming World magazine, assessing her "vast talent on display at two championship-level events", opined "it's not hype and bluster anymore. Based purely on results from this year, not career medal totals or performance over a long stretch of time, McIntosh is the third-best female swimmer in the world."[43]
On October 28, at the 2022 FINA Swimming World Cup in Toronto, and conducted in short course metres, McIntosh set a new world junior record, World Cup record, Americas record, and Canadian record in the 400 metre freestyle on day one, finishing in a time of 3:52.80 in the final to win the gold medal.[45][46] The following day, she won the gold medal in the 400 metre individual medley with a world junior record and Canadian record time of 4:21.49.[47][48] She and fellow Canadians Sydney Pickrem and Bailey Andison won all the medals in the event.[48] Approximately 50 minutes later, she placed eighth in the 100 metre backstroke with a time of 58.84 seconds.[49] The following, and final, day, she won a pair of bronze medals, the first in the 200 metre backstroke with a personal best time of 2:02.85 and the second in the 200 metre individual medley with a personal best time of 2:06.57.[50][51]
The next, and final, stop of the World Cup circuit, McIntosh won the gold medal in the 200 metre butterfly on November 3, finishing in a personal best time of 2:03.40, which was the only time in the final faster than 2:04.00.[52] Day two, she finished in a personal best time of 1:52.63 in the 200 metre freestyle final to place fifth.[53] On the third and final day, she dropped 6.25 seconds from her personal best time in the 800 metre freestyle to win the silver medal with a Canadian record time of 8:07.12.[54]
The following month, at the 2022 U.S. Open Swimming Championships, McIntosh won the gold medal in the 400 metre individual medley with a Championships record, world junior record, and US Open record time of 4:28.61.[55][56] The following day, she won the silver medal in the 200 metre backstroke with a personal best time of 2:07.15, which was 1.87 seconds behind gold medallist Regan Smith of the United States.[57][58] Earlier in the meet, on day two, she won the silver medal in the 400 metre freestyle.[58]
2023 season
McIntosh drew headlines early in 2023 with performances at the 2023 Pro Swim Series event in Fort Lauderdale, first lowering her national and world junior records in the 200 metre butterfly.[59] Days later in the 200 metre freestyle event, she broke Taylor Ruck's national record and lowered her prior world junior record with a time of 1:54.13, and won the event over Katie Ledecky. This was the first time Ledecky had lost a domestic final in the 200 metre distance or higher since 2014. McIntosh remarked that "I'm really happy with that swim but it hurts really bad."[60] She then broke Sydney Pickrem's national record in the 200 metre individual medley.[61]
At the national swim trials at the end of March at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, McIntosh set her first world record, winning the 400 metre freestyle event with a time of 3:56.08 seconds and surpassing Ariarne Titmus's prior time of 3:56.40. Speaking afterwards, she said that "going into tonight, I didn't think the world record was a possibility, but you never know."[62][10] Days later, McIntosh won the 400 metre medley with a time of 4:25.87, breaking the world record that Katinka Hosszú had set at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She became the first swimmer in history to hold both the 400 m freestyle and 400 m individual medley long course world records at the same time.[2] McIntosh also improved her own world junior records in three other events at the meet.[63]
McIntosh's first event of the 2023 World Aquatics Championships was a highly-anticipated 400 metre freestyle, touted as a three-way contest between her, Titmus and Ledecky.[64] She came third in the heats, but in the final she finished narrowly in fourth place, being overtaken for bronze in the final stretch by New Zealander Erika Fairweather. McIntosh called it a "learning experience." Later the same session she joined the Canadian team in the final of the 4×100 metre freestyle relay; with Oleksiak absent and Ruck recovering from a hand injury, the team finished seventh.[65] McIntosh competed in the 200 m freestyle at the World Championships for the first time, finishing second in the semi-finals, 0.03 back of Titmus and 0.24 ahead of Mollie O'Callaghan.[66] She came third in the event final, out touching reigning Olympic silver medallist Siobhan Haughey for the bronze.[67] On July 27, McIntosh successfully defended her title in the 200 m butterfly and improved on her world junior record in the event, claiming that she "was just trying to have as much fun as possible and race as hard as I could."[68] She became only the second Canadian to win three World titles, after Kylie Masse, as well as the second to defend a World title, again after Masse.[69] Later in the day she joined the Canadian team in the final of the 4×200 metre freestyle relay. The team, depleted of some of its most important members from years prior, finished in fifth, but McIntosh's 1:53.97 was the second-fastest in the event, behind Titmus, and the ninth-fastest of all time to that point.[70] After finishing second in her heat for the 400 m medley, McIntosh defended her title, winning in championship record time (4:27.11) and a margin of 4.30 seconds over repeat silver medallist Katie Grimes. In so doing, she broke her tie with Masse for sole possession of the record for Canadian World Aquatics titles.[71] Later in the same session, she swam the freestyle leg of the 4×100 m medley relay, helping the team to a bronze medal. Her 53.48 time was an improvement by almost a second and a half over her performance in the earlier freestyle relay.[71][72]
In her final major competition of the year, the 2023 U.S. Open Swimming Championships, McIntosh won the gold medal in the 400 m freestyle race, defeating Ledecky and breaking the latter's championship record with a time of 3:59.42.[73] She went on to defend her gold medal in the 400 m individual medley, defeating Israeli silver medallist Anastasia Gorbenko by almost eight seconds.[74]
At the inaugural edition of the Canadian Swimming Open in April, McIntosh won the 200 m freestyle with a world-leading time of 1:54.21. She came in second in the 100 m backstroke final later in the same session, finishing just behind Maggie Mac Neil.[80] She would go on to win the 100 m freestyle, 100 m butterfly, and 200 m individual medley.[81]
McIntosh was the centre of attention at Canada's Olympic swimming trials, which featured audiences, unlike in the pandemic-afflicted 2021 events.[82] On the first day, she won the 400 m freestyle with a world-leading time that she nevertheless said she was "definitely not happy with."[83] She then won the 200 m freestyle on the second day.[84] McIntosh drew headlines on the fourth day in the 400 m individual medley, where she broke her own world record with a 4:24.38, an improvement of a second and a half.[85] She finished more than fourteen seconds ahead of second-place Ella Jansen.[86] In her fourth event of the trials, the 200 m butterfly, she posted a world-leading time of 2:04.33.[87] On the final day of the trials, McIntosh won the 200 m individual medley, and was formally named to the Canadian Olympic team.[88]
Paris Olympics
In her first race of the Paris Olympics, McIntosh entered the 400 m freestyle, which was expected to be a contest between herself, Ariarne Titmus, and Ledecky. She won the silver medal, finishing 0.88 seconds behind Titmus but more than two seconds clear of Ledecky and the rest of the field. This was her first Olympic medal, and the first Canadian medal in Paris. Later in the same session McIntosh participated in the final of the 4×100 m freestyle relay, where the Canadian team finished fourth.[89] She then entered the 400 m individual medley as the heavy favourite. After coming third in the heats, she won the gold medal, finishing more than five seconds ahead of American silver medallist Katie Grimes to take her first Olympic title.[90]
Competing next in the 200 m butterfly, forty years after her mother's appearance in the same event in 1984, McIntosh won the gold medal and set a new Olympic record time of 2:03.03.[91][92] This was the second-fastest time in the history of the women's 200 m butterfly, and the fastest of the textile era.[3] McIntosh became the first Canadian woman to win two individual gold medals at a Summer Olympics, the first Canadian to win two gold medals at a Summer Olympics since sprinter Donovan Bailey in 1996, and the first Canadian swimmer to win three individual medals at a single Olympics.[92][93] In the same session she joined the Canadian team in the final of the 4×200 m freestyle relay, where they finished fourth, a result she said she was "pretty disappointed with."[91] McIntosh's next race, the 200 m individual medley, drew media attention as a contest for featuring her and two other individual Olympic gold medallists, America's Kate Douglass and Australian Kaylee McKeown.[94] This was only the second time that she had appeared in the 200 metre medley at an international competition, after the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Considered one of the favourites, she won the title with an Olympic record time of 2:06.56. She became the first Canadian to win three gold medals at a single Summer Olympics, and with four total medals she tied teammate Penny Oleksiak for the most Canadian medals in a single Olympics.[4][95]
McIntosh's final swim of the Paris Olympics was as part of the Canadian team in the 4×100 m medley relay, having replaced Penny Oleksiak as the anchor for the event final. For the third time, the Canadians finished fourth, denying McIntosh's chance to tie Cindy Klassen's record for the most medals won by a Canadian Olympian in a single Olympics.[96] Following the end of the Olympic swimming competitions, she returned to Canada to vacation at her family's Muskoka Lakes cottage, but traveled back to Paris a few days later upon being named Canada's co-flagbearer at the closing ceremony, alongside hammer throw championEthan Katzberg.[97]
