By: Nina He

As the Summer Olympics rolls on it continues to bring surprises —lots of great swimmers, broken records, and lots of great (if not expected)twists. One of which is Summer McIntosh.

The young Canadian won gold at the Olympics on Monday in the women’s’ 400-meter I.M. (individual medley). As the world record holder and two-time champion of the event, McIntosh touched first with a 4:27.71, with Katie Girmes taking silver with a 4:33.40 and Emma Watson taking bronze at 4:34.93In addition McIntosh also earned silver in the 400 freestyle with a 3:56.08, beating Kaite Ledekcy, who got bronze with a 3:58.35, in her signature event.

McIntosh said that she grew up idolizing Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps. Her cat was named Mikey for his love of water and after Phelps. She also had a poster of Ledekcy on her wall.

McIntosh lived with her mother, Jill (née Horstead), who was also a swimmer and competed in swimming at the Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics. Brooke, McIntosh’s older sister competed in pairs figure skating at the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games. They lived in Toronto, Canada, and moved to Sarasota, Florida, to join an elite swimming program.

Beating her childhood models and standing on the podium with them must’ve given McIntosh an unimaginable sense of pride.

After McIntosh sang “Oh Canada,” she said, “I still remember growing up every single day standing up at the beginning of class singing ‘Oh Canada.’ So now being able to do it at the Olympic Games, it’s pretty surreal.”

When being asked how she remained so calm, McIntosh said that she had been competing since she was 14. She had been competing in the Olympics for three years—so she knows how it goes.

“I still feel like I’m just my 10-year-old self,” Summer said, recalling her memories, “and I’m just trying to solidify all those dreams I had growing up as a kid. And I plan on being in this sport for as long as I can do it.”