Who is Summer McIntosh? Everything we know about the Canadian teen swim star
Summer McIntosh is already being dubbed the next great in the U.S. swimming arena. She began 2022 with a glorious victory against Katie Ledecky and ended it with the fourth-fastest 400m individual medley in history.
Earlier in the event, Summer lost to Katie Ledecky in every close encounter, but won the event in Greensboro, North Carolina in 4 minutes and 28.61 seconds. She won by a margin equivalent to Ledecky's 13.24 seconds, smashing her previous national record, which was the fourth-fastest time record in history.
But the question still remains, who is this wonder kid? What do we know about Summer McIntosh?
Who is Summer McIntosh?
Summer McIntosh is a 16-year-old competitive Canadian swimmer who was born on August 18, 2006. Her mother, Jill, participated as a competitive swimmer and placed ninth overall in the 200-meter Breaststroke B Final at the 1984 Summer Olympics. She also won a bronze medal in the same competition at the Commonwealth Games in 1986.
Jill looked at her boisterous younger child Summer when she was just nine years old and a member of the Lakeshore Swim Club and had an "Oooh yeah" moment. She realized that Summer was, in other terms, rather swift.
When McIntosh finished fourth in the 400-meter freestyle at age 14, she was chosen as the youngest member of Canada's Olympic team for the 2020 Summer Games, which was when she first came to public prominence.
She was dubbed a "teen swimming superstar," and she became the first Canadian to take home two golds at a singles World Championship. The following year, she became the youngest swimming world champion in more than 10 years.
Summer McIntosh's career over the years
More than 50 age category, national swimming records have been broken by McIntosh. She set a world record for the fastest time ever by a 14-year-old swimmer in 400-meter freestyle in May 2021 with a timing of 4:05.13.
She defeated training partner Penny Oleksiak to win the 200-meter freestyle event at the 2021 Canadian Olympic swimming trials in Toronto in 1:56.19, a personal best and the quickest time ever recorded by a 14-year-old swimmer globally.
During the summer edition of the 15th FINA World Swimming Championships, she took home gold in the 4200M freestyle and silver in the 4100M medley and 400M freestyle. On the opening day, McIntosh broke the 400-meter freestyle world junior mark, the World Cup record, America's record, and the Canadian record. She won the gold medal with a time of 3:52.80.
Summer McIntosh won two gold medals in the 200-meter fly and 400-meter medley at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, which were held between June 18 and June 25, 2022. She also won bronze in the 4200M freestyle and silver in the 400M freestyle.
McIntosh competed in her first Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England in 2022. She made the decision to skip the 200-meter butterfly race there in order to concentrate on other competitions and won gold in the 400-meter medley on the first day of the competition, increasing her world junior, Commonwealth, and national records to 4:29.01. Finally, she finished 7.77 seconds faster than Kiah Melverton, who won the silver medal.
Summer McIntosh won the gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley at the 2022 U.S. Open Swimming Championships the following month with a time that set new records for the Championships, the world junior record, and the US Open.
In her Winter Juniors program, she has the 200 free, 500 free, 100 fly, 200 fly, and 200 back. McIntosh entered the contest using her best long course times because she had no prior yard experience. Consequently, she will race in the preliminary heats.