Summer McIntosh does the butterfly leg of the women's 400-metre individual medley at the Canadian Olympic Swim Trials in Toronto on May 16.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
It seems there is only one swimmer who can beat Summer McIntosh these days – and her name happens to be Summer McIntosh.
At the Canadian Olympic trials in Toronto, the 17-year-old smashed her own world record in the 400-metre individual medley, chopping nearly a second and a half off the previous mark.
McIntosh won the race in 4 minutes 24.38 seconds, beating the record she set last year of 4:25.87.
But the numbers don’t tell the full story. How McIntosh did it sent an unsettling message to her rivals around the world with just more than two months to go until the Paris Olympics.
There are few swimmers who completely master the 400 IM, a gruelling mélange of four different styles: the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.
Every swimmer has a strength and a weakness. For McIntosh, Canada’s leading medal contender in the pool this summer, the breaststroke was always the one she had to work hardest at.
But McIntosh showed a different side of herself Thursday. At the end of the second leg, McIntosh was in world-record contention. And by the time she finished the breaststroke, it was within her grasp. No doubt, this race will raise a few eyebrows from the United States to Australia in the days ahead.
It’s a sign of her evolution since she burst on the scene at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, narrowly missing the podium as a 14-year-old.
McIntosh acknowledged after the race that she’d been targeting the breaststroke in her training, in particular executing it while tired, which is how the 400 IM is usually won – by fighting off exhaustion.
“Usually breaststroke is the stroke that takes the longest for me to get going. And a few tweaks in my technique have helped,” McIntosh said.
“It’s always good to see those little improvements come into fruition in my races.”
But McIntosh says the turnaround hasn’t been overnight. Asked when exactly she started working on improving her breaststroke, she said it’s been a while.
“When I was 12, when I first started coming to events,” McIntosh joked. “But yeah, I’ve always been focusing on it, especially the last few months.”
The race gives McIntosh her third entry in Paris, after winning the 200 m freestyle and 400 m freestyle earlier this week, all of them in convincing fashion.
Teammate and backstroke specialist Kylie Masse called McIntosh a special talent.
“It sounds crazy, but I think every time she dives in the pool we’re expecting something spectacular because that’s just the type of athlete she is,” Masse said.
“I think people don’t really realize how special it is. Because it seems normal but she is an incredible athlete and I hope people can just recognize that and appreciate what they’re seeing.”
Masse knows a thing or two about setting world records, having held the planet’s best time in the 100 m backstroke from 2017 to 2018.
So how does it feel to smash a world record?
“Any time anyone breaks a world record it’s incredible, that’s the fastest anyone has ever gone in history,” Masse said.
But even she struggled to explain the feeling, other than to say the difficult can seem easy when you’re executing at a world-class level.
“There’s no point in analyzing it too deeply,” she said, at a loss for words. “It’s an incredible swim.”
Masse and McIntosh have both arrived at the Olympic trials in top form. After winning the 100 m backstroke on Wednesday night, with her best time since she won a silver medal in the event at the Tokyo Olympics, Masse won the 200 m backstroke Thursday in a time of 2:06.24.
Regan Rathwell placed second, also qualifying for Paris in a time of 2:09.38.
It was another blistering race for Masse, who has bounced back after a disappointing season last year, when her performances slumped, forcing her to overhaul her training.
“It feels great. I’m really pleased with that. I haven’t been at that form in a long time and I don’t think I’ve ever been that fast at this point of time in the year,” Masse said.
“It’s a massive step forward from where I was last year, and I know I still have work to do.”
With Paris fast approaching, both Masse and McIntosh are now focused on what lies ahead. Minutes after setting the world record, McIntosh had seemingly already put it behind her.
“Just under 10 weeks to prepare, so that’s still lots of time to improve things,” she said.