Summer McIntosh celebrates after breaking the World Record in the women's 400m IM at the Canadian Olympic Swim Trials in Toronto on May 16.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Summer McIntosh, as expected, is going to be a very busy athlete in Paris this summer.
McIntosh won the 200-metre butterfly at the Canadian Olympic trials in Toronto on Saturday night with a time of 2:04.33.
The win earned McIntosh her fourth individual entry at the Paris Olympics in July.
In what has been a dominant week for the 17-year-old from Toronto, McIntosh also won the 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle, and 400m individual medley at the trials, in which the top two swimmers in each event make the Canadian roster, provided they meet the Olympic qualifying time.
During each of those performances, McIntosh solidified her position as Canada’s top medal hope at the pool.
Mabel Zavaros finished second with a time of 2:11.85, missing the Olympic qualifying time of 2:08.43
McIntosh holds the Canadian record in the 200m butterfly, at 2:04.06, a few seconds behind the world record of 2:01.81, set by Zige Liu of China in 2009.
On Thursday, McIntosh smashed her own world record as she won the 400m medley, indicating she is in top form with a little over two months to go until the Paris Olympics get under way.
The men’s 200m medley saw Okotoks, Alta.’s Finlay Knox set a new Canadian record, winning in 1:56.07 seconds. Tristan Jankovics took second place in 1:59.32, missing the Olympic qualifying time of 1:57.94.
Knox, who raced at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 when there were no fans in attendance due to the pandemic, said he has loved the return of crowds at events such as the Canadian trials. Knox said he’s looking forward to the same atmosphere in Paris.
“Since I can remember, I’ve thrived and I tend to enjoy the situations where there’s a crowd, the energy feeds me,” Knox said. “Back in 2021 when I qualified for my first Olympics, there was no crowd and ever since then I’ve just loved having people in the stands.”
In the men’s 50m freestyle, Josh Liendo of Toronto also set a new Canadian record, winning with a time of 21.48, booking another spot in Paris. Second-place finisher Yuri Kisil narrowly missed the Olympic qualifying time of 21.96. Kisil finished in 22.01.
Liendo, who won the 100-metre freestyle earlier in the week, has qualified for his second Olympics. Liendo said he’ll allow himself a moment or two to savour Saturday’s performance before turning his attention back to his preparation for Paris.
“Back to work, hard work,” Liendo said. “I’m going to enjoy this for a little bit, but I do understand what the big goal is, and obviously trying to fine tune stuff and get better, that’s always the goal.”
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