16-year-old Summer McIntosh breaks Ariarne Titmus' 400m Freestyle World Record

Summer McIntosh has had one of the best times as a swimmer since last year. She is often considered to be a direct rival to Katie Ledecky due to the events they compete in being similar.

Just recently, 16-year-old McIntosh broke the 400m freestyle world record, which was previously held by Ariarne Titmus at the 2023 Canadian swimming trials. She clocked 3:56.08, which was 0.32 seconds faster than Titmus' 3:56.40 (she set this record at the 2022 Australian Swimming Championships).

🚨 NEW WORLD RECORD 🚨

Summer McIntosh 🇨🇦 takes down the 400m Freestyle WR in a time of 3:56.08 🤩 #swimming twitter.com/SwimmingCanada… https://t.co/cQi2o33bij

Despite breaking many World Junior Records, this swim is Summer McIntosh's first World Record.

Along with winning gold in the 400 IM and 200 fly, she also took home a silver medal in the event at the 2022 World Championships, finishing behind Ledecky. She hasn't competed in the 400 freestyle much since then, but in the US Sectional Championship meet in early February on a long course, she had a time of 4:08.16, and at the US Open in December, she recorded a time of 4:06.68.

But Summer McIntosh did see a significant decline in her short-course World Cup performance in October. She set a career-best time of 3:52.80 in Toronto, beating it by five seconds.

Prior to joining the Sarasota Sharks in Sarasota, Florida, McIntosh trained with Ben Titley at the Swimming Canada High-Performance Group in Canada on sporadic training excursions to Florida.

Later in the competition, McIntosh is slated to swim the 200 IM, 200 fly, 400 IM, and 200 free.

Top 10 fastest Women's 400m freestyle swims

Swimming records get broken often. If the records that were set by Michael 'The Flying Fish' Phelps can be taken down, then any record can be broken. In the women's 400m freestyle, the fastest swim record was held by Katie Ledecky for quite a long time before Ariarne Titmus broke it in 2022. However, in less than a year's time, Summer McIntosh went 0.32 seconds faster than Titmus to reset the record.

Here are the top 10 fastest 400m freestyle swims:

Summer McIntosh, 2023 Canadian Swimming Trials - 3:56.08
Ariarne Titmus, 2022 Australian Championships - 3:56.40
Katie Ledecky, 2016 Rio Olympics - 3:56.46
Katie Ledecky, 2014 Pan Pacific Championships - 3:58.37
Katie Ledecky, 2014 USA Championships - 3:58.86
Federica Pellegrini, 2009 World Championships - 3:59.15
Federica Pellegrini, 2009 Mediterranean Games - 4:00.41
Joanne Jackson, 2009 British Championships - 4:00.66
Federica Pellegrini, 2008 European Championships - 4:01.53
Laure Manaudou, 2006 European Championships - 4:02.13

Summer McIntosh recently set three World Junior records

The Canadian swimming sensation, earlier in March, set the Women's 200m freestyle and 200m fly events on fire by breaking them with her blistering performances at the 2023 TYR Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

She initially broke the record in the 200m butterfly. McIntosh established a record in her first meeting at a time of 2:05.05.

🚨NEW WOOORLD JUNIOR RECORD🤩

Summer McIntosh breaks two World Junior Records 😱

200m IM ⏱️ 2:08:08
200m Free ⏱️ 1:54.13 https://t.co/Y3yO6IHAAg

Later on, Katie Ledecky's nine-year winning run was broken when Summer McIntosh upset her in the 200m freestyle. After finishing in 1:54.13, the Canadian also beat her country's national record.

With a time of 2:08.08 on Saturday, March 4, Summer McIntosh broke the 200m individual medley mark. With a run of 2:08:70, she previously established a record at the Commonwealth Games in 2022. It is also a new Canadian record at this time.