Canadian Summer McIntosh won the 200-metre butterfly at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore on Thursday, her third gold of the championship.Tingshu Wang/Reuters
The World Aquatics Championships are underway in Singapore and Canada’s Summer McIntosh is – as expected – making big waves.
The 18-year-old has already won three gold medals this week, and is looking for two more to tie American legend Michael Phelps’s record for most individual golds won at a single world championship.
Summer McIntosh faces greatest challenge yet in historic medal chase
A generational talent already among the top swimmers in the world, McIntosh may be the best swimmer to ever come out of Canada. She is a three-time Olympic champion, seven-time World Champion, holds six current world records and has set precedents that would have been unthinkable in Canadian swimming even a decade ago.
Here’s everything you need to know about McIntosh as she looks to make history yet again this week.
Mcintosh in action during a heat for the women’s 800-metre freestyle on Friday.OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images
Where is Summer McIntosh from?
McIntosh is 18 years old and was born and raised in Toronto. Her mother, Jill Horstead, competed for Canada in the 200-metre butterfly at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games, and her older sister, Brooke, is a Canadian pairs figure skater.
She made her Olympic debut in Tokyo at just 14 years old, making her the youngest Canadian athlete at the 2020 Summer Games.
McIntosh also has a cat, Mikey, who she named after American swimming legend Michael Phelps.
Where does Summer McIntosh train and who is her coach?
During the pandemic, McIntosh uprooted her training from Toronto to Florida to train with coach Brent Arckey, a medley specialist, and trained and studied in Sarasota.
She spent much of the last year in France training with French Olympic coach Fred Vergnoux, and in May, she announced she would be moving to Austin, Texas, to train with Bob Bowman, who coached Michael Phelps to his Olympics dominance.
McIntosh celebrates her gold medal win in the 200-metre women’s individual medley at the 2024 Paris Olympics.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Which Olympic and world medals has she won?
McIntosh is the reigning Olympic champion in the 200-metre butterfly, the 200-metre individual medley and the 400-metre medley, and set her first of six long-course world records when she was just 16.
At the Canadian swimming trials in June, McIntosh beat her own world records in the 400-metre individual medley and the 400-metre freestyle, and also broke the 200-metre individual medley record. Last December, she also set three short-course world records in 400-metre freestyle, 200-metre butterfly and 400-metre individual medley at the world championships.
Olympian Summer McIntosh may be the best swimmer to ever come out of Canada
In total, she has won four Olympic medals, 11 long-course World Championship medals and set nine world records in six events at the senior level. After her three golds and one silver at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the weeks before her 18th birthday – tying teammate Penny Oleksiak for the most by any Canadian at a single Olympics – Time magazine dubbed the season the “Summer of Summer.”
How many medals has she won at this year’s World Aquatics Championships in Singapore?
McIntosh has won three gold medals so far in Singapore, making her the first Canadian to claim three golds at a single world championship.
She won gold in the 200-metre butterfly on Thursday, coming within a quarter of a second of beating the world record and making her the first to win three world titles in the same event after victories in 2022 and 2023. Her meet-record time of 2:01.99 is the fastest ever in a textile suit and just shy of the world record of 2:01.81 set by China’s Liu Zige in 2009 during the era of the now-banned “super suit.”
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McIntosh also won the 200-metre individual medley and 400-metre freestyle events earlier in the meet. In total, she has won 11 medals at long-course worlds, pushing her past veteran teammate Kylie Masse.
When does Summer McIntosh swim her next race?
McIntosh will face off against reigning Olympic champion Katie Ledecky in the 800-metre freestyle final on Saturday morning at 8:17 a.m. ET. The American, considered one of the greatest female swimmers of all time, qualified first overall in the heats with a time of 8:14.62, about five seconds faster than McIntosh in third-place.
McIntosh’s last race of the championships is the 400-metre individual medley final on Sunday at 8:15 a.m. ET. She is the reigning Olympic champion and world-record holder in the event.
McIntosh was back in the water Friday in the 800-metre freestyle heats ahead of Saturday’s final in Singapore.Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Which record is she going for in Singapore?
McIntosh is aiming for five individual titles – something only Phelps has achieved at a single world championship. If she wins her remaining two events, she would also be the first and only woman to accomplish the feat.
At the Friday heats for the 800-metre freestyle event, McIntosh faced off against reigning Olympic champion Ledecky, an American widely considered the best female swimmer in history. Ledecky, who is going after Phelps’s all-time record of 26 gold medals at the world championships, finished more than five seconds ahead of McIntosh with a time of 8:14.62. Ledecky currently has 22 golds at the event.
Last February, McIntosh clocked the season’s fastest time at a meet in Florida, handing Ledecky her first loss in the event in 13 years. But she ultimately opted out of that event at the Paris Olympics to focus on other races.
McIntosh said Thursday she was frustrated not to reach the world record in the 200-metre butterfly, but felt optimistic going into the final two events.
“Seeing how close I was gives me a lot of confidence, and the way I felt in that final is amazing as well, so I’m super, super excited for the 800 and then of course the 400 IM,” McIntosh told The Canadian Press.
McIntosh at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She is a precision freestyler, elite at the butterfly and a talented backstroker.Marko Djurica/Reuters
Why is McIntosh such an impressive swimmer?
McIntosh’s strength across several different strokes and distances at such a young age sets her apart.
She is a precision freestyler, elite at the butterfly and a talented backstroker when it comes to the medleys. Arguably, there was a time when the breaststroke might have been her weakness. But she went to work in 2023 and fixed that ahead of the Paris Olympics.
‘Pain tolerance is her secret weapon’: The origins of Summer McIntosh
While her youth and power were what first turned heads, McIntosh’s coaches, teammates and observers have noted that it’s her mental strength, discipline and ability to handle the intense pressure that help set her apart from peers even years her senior.
“We’ve never had anybody at this level,” Brent Hayden, who won bronze for Canada at the London Olympics in 2012 and swam alongside McIntosh in Tokyo, told The Globe and Mail last July. “I don’t think we’ve seen somebody this good in that many events, ever.”
With reports from Grant Robertson and The Canadian Press