Summer McIntosh breaks second world record in five-day span at Canadian Swimming Trials
Summer McIntosh continues to shatter the record books as the swimming phenom had a virtuoso performance throughout the week at the Canadian Swimming Trials in Toronto.
The 16-year-old broke a seven-year world record in the 400-metre individual medley on Saturday at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre. McIntosh swam to a time of 4:25.87 to break the record previously held by Katinka Hosszú of Hungary.
This comes on the heels of her first senior world record in 400m freestyle on Tuesday, and setting a new world junior and Canadian record in the 200m butterfly on Friday.
“I mean going in I just wanted to put down a good race, and really just focus on the small things,” she told CBC Sports following her race. “Overall, I’m really happy with that time obviously, and it’s always nice to set world records.”
McIntosh sets junior world and Canadian record on Friday
On Friday, the 16-year-old won the women’s 200m butterfly, finishing with a world junior record and Canadian record time of 2:04.70. McIntosh held the previous Canadian record at 2:05.05 which she set on March 2, 2023.
In the men’s pool, two swimmers came close to the record books on Friday. Ilya Kharun nearly broke his own Canadian record in the 200m butterfly, finishing just 0.25 seconds short of his record time of 1:54.49. Joshua Liendo also finished within a second of the Canadian record in the 100m freestyle with a time of 47.86.
McIntosh sets first senior world record in 400m freestyle
Summer McIntosh had the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre buzzing on Tuesday night as she set her first senior world record at the 2023 Bell Canadian Swimming Trials.
The 16-year-old phenom swam to victory in the women’s 400m freestyle in 3:56.08. That took 0.32 off the previous mark set by last May by Ariarne Titmus of Australia, the reigning Olympic champion in the event.
McIntosh is the first Canadian to break a long course world record since Kylie Masse did so while winning gold in the women’s 100m backstroke at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships. McIntosh swam more than three seconds faster than the national record she set in winning silver behind Titmus at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
“Over the past few years I’ve put my life into this, to be the best I can be. To achieve something like this, it was very unexpected. It was never in my dreams to do this tonight or even a few years ago. This just blows my mind,” said McIntosh.
McIntosh was just 14 when she broke onto the international scene with her fourth-place finish in the 400m freestyle in her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020. A year later, she won four medals at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships. That haul included gold medals in the 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley as well as a silver medal in the 400m freestyle behind American legend Katie Ledecky. McIntosh went on to win six medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The Bell Canadian Swimming Trials are serving as the selection event for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships as well as the 2023 Pan American Games. They will continue through Sunday with finals sessions each night that are being streamed live by CBC Sports.
In other notable news from the opening night, Ingrid Wilm defeated Masse in the final of the women’s 100m backstroke. Twice an Olympic medallist in the event, Masse had won the event at every Trials since 2016. Both women qualified for the world championship team.
Javier Acevedo swam his fastest 100m backstroke since 2017, qualifying for the worlds with his winning time of 53.83 seconds. It was his first time under the 54-second mark. Olympians Sydney Pickrem and Kelsey Wog both qualified for worlds in the women’s 200m breaststroke. Pickrem was a bronze medallist in the event at 2019 Worlds.
McIntosh breaks world junior and Canadian record in 200m freestyle
Sunday was another successful day in the pool for Team Canada.
McIntosh continued to dominate winning gold in the women’s 200m freestyle with a time of 1:53.91, a new world junior Canadian record. McIntosh competed in a total of five events this week and broke five world junior and Canadian records, including two world records. In the men’s 200m freestyle, Acevedo qualified with a time of 1:47.72.
Liendo also continued to impress in the men’s 50m butterfly. His time of 23.27, earned him a new Canadian record. On the women’s side, Katerine Savard won the women’s 50m butterfly with a time of 26.56.
Other qualifiers included Mabel Zavaros in the women’s 800m freestyle and Eric Brown in the men’s 1500m.
After their incredible performances this week, our Team Canada swimmers are ready to face the world’s in Japan this July.
“The goal is to be at the top of that podium,” Liendo told CBC Olympics, “and I’m going to keep working and fighting until I get there.”
