Wins keep piling up for Canada's Summer McIntosh as Paris pool awaits for teenaged star (2024)

As the race wins and expectations for a potentially massive Olympics continue to pile up for Canadian swimming sensation Summer McIntosh, the 17-year-old is well aware that the real work is just about to begin.

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McIntosh laid down another brilliant effort on Saturday at the Canadian Trials, winning the 200-metre butterfly in a time of two minutes 4.33 seconds. Though the time was just off her Canadian record of 2:04.06, it was the fastest raced in the world this year, setting the stage for yet another memorable moment at the 2024 Paris Olympics later this summer.

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But for McIntosh — who now has easy triumphs in four events at these Trials with a possible fifth yet to come — the wins may be important, but in her rarefied world also serve as just another step to maximize performances in the Paris pool.

To that end, once this meet ends here at the Toronto Pan Am Games Centre here on Sunday, McIntosh and her coach Brent Arckey will return to their Sarasota, Fla., base to put the finishing touches on what they hope will lead to a massive Games from one of the country’s top medal hopes.

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“I’ll just get back to training as soon as possible and back to all the things I need to improve on coming off of this week and things I need to continue doing,” McIntosh explained on Saturday with the coolness of a far more seasoned athlete than one who made her Olympic debut at age 14 and still has plenty of her teen years remaining.

“I’ve got about 10 weeks before Paris by the time I get back (to Florida.) It’s not a ton of time, but enough time to improve on some of the small things — tweaks when it comes to splits and technique.”

While McIntosh tends to play down her accomplishments to date, it’s clear that she is well aware of what awaits in Paris and that her wins at the Trials, while an important barometer on her training, are also a tool.

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Case in point was her clinical take on Saturday’s time, which for the moment establishes her as the fastest in the world in one of her best events.

“I try not to focus too much on how fast it is compared to others (because) when it comes to the Olympic Games everyone’s going to give that much more,” McIntosh said. “It’s just a point of focus on how I split the race and how my technique was able to hold up.

“There’s always room to improve and keep pushing forward and try to keep breaking down my (performance.)”

In the 200 butterfly specifically, the focus going forward will be to finish stronger, a minor detail that surely would have allowed her to eclipse her Canadian mark on Saturday.

“It’s really just trying to work that second half as much as possible at this point,” McIntosh said. “I have at least a second if I’m (faster in the second half.)”

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That said, it’s been quite a week already for McIntosh, who has surged through the Olympic qualifying time in each of her four events. A dominating win in the 400-metre freestyle to kick it off was followed by an easy win kn the 200 freestyle which set up a dominating triumph in the 400-metre individual medley on Thursday in which she broke her own world record.

It all sets up for a wild ride for the Toronto swimmer, who captured gold in the 400 IM and 200 butterfly at the 2023 World Championships in Japan.

Swimming Canada and the McIntosh camp are well aware of the expectations that will tail her to France. But the swimmer herself? She seems ready to handle all that comes her way.

“I think I’m getting used to it at this point,” McIntosh said. “I don’t really think about other’s expectations because it’s pretty irrelevant to what I do in training and racing.”

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The racing part was once again impressive this week, with an expected start in the 200 IM still to go on Sunday. And with 10 weeks or so of training still to go, it’s hard not to envision that the best is yet to come.

AROUND THE POOL

The Canadian men continue their impressive performances as Finlay Knox captured the 200 IM in a Canadian record time of 1:56.07 that met the Olympic qualifying standard. Knox’s time was the fourth fastest in the world this year … The Canadian records continued to tumble in the 50-metre freestyle when Josh Liendo continued his excellence here this week, meeting the Olympic qualifier mark with a time of 21.48. … Both Knox and Liendo usurped their own Canadian marks … The meet winds up here on Sunday and at its conclusion the Canadian team will be named.

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