Swimmer Summer McIntosh, 17, ready to be breakout star at Paris Olympics

Follow our Olympic coverage in the lead-up to Paris.

TORONTO — Summer McIntosh waited before taking the field.

It was mid-May, the fourth night of the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic swimming trials. McIntosh had swum the previous two nights and was preparing to compete in the 400m individual medley, an event in which the 17-year-old is already the world record holder and two-time world champion.

“Summer McIntosh!shouted the public address announcer.

McIntosh stands beneath a replica of the Eiffel Tower at the Pan American Sports Center in Toronto. She was the last swimmer called. McIntosh walked to Lane 5 to the cheers of the crowd. As she stepped onto the starting block, she adjusted her goggles and placed her hands on the lenses.

There was a beep and McIntosh jumped into the pool. Eight long. One hundred meters for each swimming stroke: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle.

Ten seconds into the race, McIntosh took the lead. After passing a hundred meters, she was a body length ahead. By the final 50 meters, McIntosh was the only swimmer visible on the broadcast. She is far ahead of her competitors.

The cheers grew louder as McIntosh swam to the finish line. Her parents, Greg and Jill, stood up and waved their arms.

McIntosh broke his own world record when he touched the wall with a time of 4 minutes 24.38 seconds, nearly a second and a half faster than his previous time.

This is the crowning achievement at the Olympic trials, and she has swum the fastest times in the world several times this year.

This is McIntosh’s stage. Play in front of an energetic crowd. She had fun there and felt relaxed.

“The crowd was absolutely electrifying,” McIntosh said of the fans during her world-record swim. “I heard all of you during the breaststroke – it really kept me going.”

In a few weeks, McIntosh will swim in front of a replica of the Eiffel Tower to the Stade La Défense in Paris, the venue for the 2024 Paris Olympic swimming competition, 8 kilometers from the actual Eiffel Tower.

In the City of Lights, the Canadian swimming community is ready to shine.

McIntosh has deep swimming roots. Her mother, Jill, competed on Team Canada at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. McIntosh began swimming competitively at the age of 8, following in her mother’s footsteps. Away from the pool, McIntosh draws inspiration from American stars Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps. McIntosh hung a poster of Ledecky in her childhood room. She named one of her cats “Mike” in honor of Phelps. She also watched highlights from Phelps’ historic 2008 Beijing Olympics, in which he won eight gold medals.

McIntosh came to national attention while swimming at the Etobicoke Swim Club. At the age of 12, McIntosh broke the 45-year-old Canadian age-group record in the 800-meter freestyle. At age 14, she defeated Canada’s most decorated Olympian, Penny Oleksiak, in the 200m freestyle at the 2020 Canadian Olympic Trials, ensuring her spot on Team Canada’s Tokyo Olympics .

She didn’t win any medals in Tokyo. But success came quickly.

She won two Commonwealth Games gold medals on her debut. A total of four World Championship gold medals in 2022 and 2023. They are all 17 years old.

At the Canadian Olympic Trials, 17-year-old Summer McIntosh set a world record in the 400-meter dash. She will be a medal contender in the Paris pentathlon event. (Andrew Francis Wallace/Toronto Star/Getty Images)

A major reason was that McIntosh moved to Sarasota, Florida, to train with Sarasota Sharks coach Brent Aki. With restrictions still in place in Ontario due to the COVID-19 pandemic, McIntosh needed a pool to swim full-time.

Sarasota’s Selby Aquatic Center, known as the “Shark Pool,” is the perfect place. Olympic size swimming pool. A friendly but competitive environment. One of Aki’s coaches has experience coaching Olympians.

This is McIntosh’s rigorous training program. Four days a week, she swims twice, early morning (6:30 to 8:30 a.m.) and late afternoon (3 to 5 p.m.). The earliest you can wake up is 4:15am

Dryland training exercises. Two hours in the pool. repeat.

This is what it takes to become the best swimmer in the world. Even during the tough days, McIntosh enjoyed preparing for the trip to Paris.

“Motivation is not something you have every day,” McIntosh told Competitor November. “It comes in waves. But I always have this discipline that no matter how I feel when I wake up, I go to the pool and try my best.

Swimming at the Paris Olympics kicked off with a thrilling competition. The women’s 400m freestyle event will be held in France on July 27, the first day of competition, and could pit McIntosh, Ledecky and reigning Olympic and world champion Ariane Titmus Conflicts will occur.

The last time the three competed side by side was the 400-meter freestyle competition at last year’s World Championships. Titmoss swims to break world record. Ledecky finished second, while McIntosh came off the podium in fourth.

world record! 🚨

Australia’s Ariarne Titmus won the world title in the women’s 400m freestyle with a time of 3 minutes, 55.38 seconds, while Katie Ledecky won the silver medal.

📺 @Peacock | #AQUAFukuoka23 pic.twitter.com/Rm7WyrbQQV

— NBC Olympics and Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 23, 2023

McIntosh said she learns and grows from bad matches. After talking to Alki and taking a day off, McIntosh finished the remainder of the meet with four medals: two golds (200m butterfly and 400m freestyle) and two bronzes (200m freestyle and 4×100m). ) medley relay).

Nearly five months after the 2023 world championships, McIntosh competed against her idol Ledecky at the Toyota U.S. Open, beating the American in the 400m freestyle with a meet-record time. They met again in Orlando last February, with McIntosh ending Ledecky’s 13-year reign in the 800m freestyle. Ledecky has recorded 29 fastest 800m times in history and has not lost in the final of this event since 2010.

At the Canadian Olympic Trials, McIntosh won the 400-meter freestyle championship with a time of 3:59.06. It’s the fastest 400-meter freestyle of 2024, faster than McIntosh’s world championship run but nearly four seconds slower than Titmus’ world record (3:55.38). McIntosh maintained a world-record pace for much of the race. But she was frustrated afterwards and believed she could have done better.

“I knew I could go faster. I had to keep going,” McIntosh said.

Aki had a different take on McIntosh’s 400m freestyle result. Two months away from Paris, here’s a road to improvement.

“You’re not going to make massive changes,” Aki told Competitor After testing. “This is her second fastest time ever and currently the fastest time in the world. She is very hard on herself. There is no doubt that there are things that need to be done better. That’s what good people do.

The Canadian Olympic Trials are over, and Olympic-qualified McIntosh is once again waiting to be called up to the pool deck to join her teammates on the Canadian swimming team. She shared a long hug with her mom as she walked out with Canadian national team coach Alki.

Jill was by Summer’s side throughout her young swimming career. The family will be in Paris to watch Sommer compete for her first Olympic medal.

After a tryout, McIntosh returned to Sarasota to train at the Shark Tank facility. Take a few days off, then get back in the pool for the final eight-week sprint.

Alki said he and McIntosh will reflect on the trial to improve areas ahead of Paris, where a massive 400m freestyle showdown with Ledecky and Titmus and McIntosh Four other individual competitions for Shish’s promotion await. After fine-tuning in Sarasota, McIntosh will head to Normandy for a training camp with her Canadian Swim Team teammates. Then came the Paris Olympics.

McIntosh has excelled at international events before. Now is the time to do it in Paris, this is the chance for the Summer Olympics to be the Summer Olympics.

“I knew I could run faster,” Summer McIntosh said of her 400-meter freestyle. McIntosh, Ariane Titmus and Katie Ledecky combined to post 26 of the fastest times ever in the event. (Jared Tilton/Getty Images)

deeper

Summer McIntosh, 17, has everyone’s attention. Now she is pursuing Olympic glory

(Above: Daniel Goldfarb/ Competitor; Photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)