Summer McIntosh, of Canada, is embraced by her family after winning the women's 400-meter individual medley final at the 2024 Summer Olympics, on July 29 in Nanterre, France.Matthias Schrader/The Associated Press
For all the records Summer McIntosh is setting in the pool this week, there is one scary scenario her competitors may want to consider: There could have been two McIntoshes.
Ms. McIntosh’s older sister, Brooke, was just as good at swimming, but ultimately chose a different sport. In fact, their mom, Jill, believes Brooke may have been the faster of the two at a young age, if that’s even possible.
“Brooke was a much better swimmer than Summer when Brooke stopped swimming,” she said. “She was a very good swimmer. She’s still a very above average swimmer, for sure.”
That’s not just a proud parent talking. Jill McIntosh doesn’t speak idly about swimming. She raced for Canada at the 1984 Olympics under her maiden name, Horstead, and is a fountain of information on the minute details of the sport.
But kids are kids, and Brooke – who at 19 is a year and a half older than her gold-medal-winning sister – had other talents and different goals.
Around the age of 11 or 12, she gravitated toward figure skating, and is now a top pairs skater with her own designs on qualifying for the next Olympics.
“When I was younger I did a little bit of racing. I just didn’t like it, though – I thought it was too scary,” Brooke said.
“Which is kind of crazy, going into figure skating. But something about swimming and racing in a pool was really scary to me. I don’t know why.”
This is where the two sisters are polar opposites.
Summer figure skated at a young age but didn’t warm to the idea of jumps, spins and being lifted high into the air while everyone was wearing sharp blades. Brooke loves the performance and athleticism of pairs skating.
Brooke McIntosh and Benjamin Mimar of Ontario perform during the senior pairs short program at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships in Oshawa, Ont., on Jan. 13, 2023.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Summer didn’t like competing in a judged event, with all the concomitant grey areas. She preferred to answer to a clock. Brooke prefers scoring over a stopwatch.
And so the two McIntoshes went their separate sporting ways. Still, it’s interesting to think what might have been had they both stayed in swimming.
There might be fewer medals to go around at the Paris Olympics.
McIntosh has already won two gold medals and a silver and will be competing for a fourth medal on Saturday.
On Thursday she became the first Canadian woman in any sport to win two individual Olympic gold medals and the first Canadian swimmer to win three individual medals at a single Games.
Her mother, who was careful not to push her daughters into swimming just because she had competed, said the best sport for kids is the one they like playing the most. Otherwise, they won’t benefit.
“You kind of just do have to step back because, even if you see someone super-, uber-talented in something, if they don’t like it, it’s just not going to work,” she said.
“The grind is too big. It’s too big not to love it.”
Both sports involve early mornings, long hours of training and a lot of dedication, as do many athletic pursuits. Summer’s father, Greg, played baseball and hockey growing up and fondly remembers the sacrifices his own parents made.
But when Summer’s coach, Brent Arckey, was asked what gets Ms. McIntosh through the grind of the Paris Olympics, where she is attempting one of the busiest competition schedules of any swimmer at the Games, he said she simply loves to compete.
“Do the thing that makes you the happiest,” Mr. Arckey said this week, referring to the conversations he’s had with Ms. McIntosh about swimming.
“The burnout thing is when you stop having success. And if you love the process of trying to find things to get better, I think that longevity happens,” he said. “She’s interested in finding the things that she can get better at, and I think that keeps it fresh and interesting.”
Brooke now trains in Berlin with her pairs partner with an eye to her own Olympics. If that happens, the sisters will swap places, with Summer in the stands.
So does Brooke still swim? Not often – high-level figure skating takes up most of her time. But this week she told The Globe and Mail she got back into swimming during the pandemic, with workouts in the family’s backyard pool in Toronto. Summer grabbed a stopwatch and served as coach.
“She would cheer me on as I rolled around in the pool,” Brooke said with a laugh. “I think she liked the power a little.”