Before Summer McIntosh could win silver at the Paris Olympics, Canada’s best swimmer had to fail

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They knew how talented Summer McIntosh was. They didn’t know how tough she was.

When the 17-year-old Canadian swimmer walked onto the pool deck at the Paris Olympics this weekend, it was an open question how she would respond in the moment – undoubtedly the most tense of her career.

There she was on swimming’s grandest stage, up against two legends of the sport: seven-time gold-medalist Katie Ledecky of the United States, widely considered the best female swimmer in history, and Australian world-record holder Ariarne Titmus, easily one of the most feared.

It was the kind of race that could break a young swimmer.

And given the expectations that have been placed on McIntosh’s shoulders since she emerged as a generational talent a few years ago, it might not have been possible to go into a race with more pressure, or higher stakes.

McIntosh’s silver medal Saturday night in the 400-metre freestyle was a demonstration of performance under pressure. It was also a demonstration of her toughness.

For the past several weeks, McIntosh has referred to Paris as “the task at hand.” She spoke of the Olympics in a sort of detached way, as though she were compartmentalizing the pressure, which only grew more amplified as her first race drew near.

On the opening weekend of competition, she would be Canada’s first real shot at a medal. That in itself comes with the pressure of an expectant country.

“I don’t know if anybody can put that aside,” her coach, Brent Arckey, said.

“It’s certainly a thing. To say that it’s not would kind of be underestimating the situation.”

But winning that medal now helps reframe things.

“I certainly feel like this is a big weight off her shoulders. A young one, getting her first Olympic medal is a big deal. I think that was a big step forward for her.”

Titmus won the race, McIntosh placed second and Ledecky third. But the resolve McIntosh showed has resonated through her team.

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Penny Oleksiak, who knows a thing or two about big moments as Canada’s most decorated Olympian with seven medals, marvelled at her teammate’s poise.

“You can’t say anything other than it was incredible. She went out and killed it,” Oleksiak said.

“Just watching her through the week and how she carries herself and how she’s been preparing for this, it was everything we were expecting and more.”

The medal has a backstory; before she could race to a silver at the Olympics, McIntosh had to lose, then learn from it.

It happened last year at the world aquatics championships in Fukuoka, Japan. McIntosh went into that meet riding high. She was winning medals everywhere she went and, at the time, held the world record in the 400-metre freestyle.

But in that same race in Japan, Titmus and Ledecky taught her a lesson. After beating McIntosh in the semi-final heats, they turned around and did it again in the final. Titmus won gold and set a world record. Ledecky placed second, and Erika Fairweather of New Zealand finished third. McIntosh, arguably the favourite heading in, was caught off guard.

Since then McIntosh has talked about how much that race in Fukuoka has stayed with her. She was talented, she was among the best in the world, but she didn’t meet the moment. When the pressure turned up, she fell short.

In postrace interviews, both Ledecky and Titmus talked about their experience coming to the fore. It may not have been intentional, but there was a message in there for McIntosh. There was still a lot to learn.

After that meet, she went back to Sarasota, Fla., where she trains with Arckey, and the two of them got to work.

“I think she’s kind of just built on all her experiences,” Arckey said. “She’s done a great job of learning to deal with the moment.”

The problem with being one of the world’s best at the age of 17 is that all the learning she does must come under the brightest lights, in front of thousands of people at top international meets.

‘We’ve never had anybody at this level’: Olympian Summer McIntosh may be the best swimmer to ever come out of Canada

“A teenage girl, trying to find these places for her to learn some of these lessons, for somebody who is as good as she is, is very difficult,” Arckey said.

“So you end up learning them on the biggest stage, and I’m proud of the fact that she’s learned some lessons on the highest stage and then kept coming back.”

Arckey used the word “tenacity” to describe McIntosh’s demeanour leading up to her silver-medal win.

Swimming Canada’s high-performance director, John Atkinson, used a different word: “toughness.”

It’s a word he brought up with McIntosh many months back, when he could see she was starting to rebound from the disappointment of Fukuoka, and that she was starting to use it as inspiration for the Olympics, instead of letting it drag her down.

“I once said to her at a swim meet earlier this year, you’re tough, aren’t you. You’re tough,” Atkinson recalls.

“Having been the world-record holder, come to a world championships, didn’t get what you wanted last year, and then to be able to come back and mentally and physically prepare to stand up on the first night and be Canada’s first medalist from all sports at the Olympics – it carries a toll.”

As her teammates and coaches praised her Saturday, McIntosh was more measured.

“Going into tonight I really just wanted to put my best foot forward and race as hard as I could,” she said, describing the race itself as “pretty nerve-racking.”

“Any time I get to race either of those girls is an amazing opportunity and I learn so much. They definitely push me to be better.”

After the race, Ledecky was effusive.

“She’s such an impressive athlete, somebody that can swim multiple distances, multiple strokes, is such a racer, so poised at this level,” Ledecky said.

“She’s going to have a phenomenal week, and a phenomenal career.”

The 400-freestyle isn’t McIntosh’s signature event. Her prowess in the 400-metre individual medley, a race that mixes freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly, is a testament to her unique range and ability. It’s also the race in which she currently holds the world record.

She will compete in three more individual events in Paris – the 200-metre and 400-metre medleys, and the 400-metre freestyle – along with a team relay likely added to that list.

It’s a hectic schedule, one that might come with less pressure now that her first Olympic medal is in the books.

“I felt like she handled the moment pretty well,” Arckey said.

Asked if there was a part of McIntosh that might have wanted more than a silver medal, he agreed. But that’s the same fire that began to burn after her loss in Fukuoka.

“Isn’t that what we want?” Arckey said. “She’s always going to want more and that’s a good thing.”

So far, he likes what he sees in Paris.

“We’re proud of her and want her to just keep working and keep the fire burning.”

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