Summer McIntosh sends her best wishes to sister Brooke and her skating partner Benjamin Mimar ahead of ISU Challenger Series
Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh recently wished luck to her elder sister Brooke McIntosh and her partner Benjamin Mimar, ahead of their participation in the ISU Challenger Series. The pair will be competing in the Finlandia Trophy of the series that is scheduled from October 4 to 8 in Espoo, Finland.
Besides Summer McIntosh’s promising rise in the swimming arena, her sister Brooke has also built a prolific figure skating profile for herself. While the 17-year-old swimmer is currently the world record-holder in the women's 400-meter individual medley, the 18-year-old pair skater (Brooke) has been the 2023 Canadian national silver medallist with partner Mimar.
Moreover, Brooke, along with 22-year-old Mimar, has won the 2022 NHK Trophy bronze medal, the 2022 World Junior bronze medal, and was also the 2022 Canadian national junior champion.
They have been selected as one of the 12 Canadian pairs who will be competing in the ISU Challenger Series, before making their way to the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series from December 6 to 9.
Ahead of the big event, Summer McIntosh wished Brooke and Mimar luck for their upcoming participation. She shared a picture of the skater pair on her Instagram story and wrote:
“good luck brookie and ben.”
Why didn't Summer McIntosh choose skating like her elder sister?
Both Summer McIntosh and Brooke McIntosh are currently excelling in their respective fields. However, before choosing swimming and skating, the McIntosh sisters tried their skills at several other sports such as gymnastics and football.
Moreover, Summer had also tried her elder sister’s domain sport initially but did not develop a liking for it. During their recent interview with Olympics.com, the younger sibling shared her experience of trying to skate.
“When I used to skate, I would never be able to remember my program because I would get too nervous before competing,” Summer said.
The four-time World Aquatics champion further shared that in swimming, one does not need to worry about looking pretty.
“[Swimmers] can just grit it out, [but] in skating, you have to do all of that on top of looking pretty and having knives on your feet and being tossed in the air. I don't understand how you can do that," she added.
On the other hand, the elder McIntosh sister said she was never a huge fan of swimming and it never clicked with her. In fact, in one of her competitions, Brooke was scared to swim.
The sisters have a great bond together and have been each other's greatest support system which has helped them flourish in their respective sports.