By: Shuwan Qin

Canadian swimming star Summer McIntosh is living up to her name-by becoming a champion at the summer games! The 17-year-old phenom won her career’s first Olympic gold on Monday night in the women’s 400-meter individual medley, touching the wall in just 4 minutes and 28 seconds, beating America’s Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant.

As the world record-holder and two-time world champion in the event, McIntosh was a favorite in the coming medley of the Olympics. Although the result is not that big of a surprise, she won by quite an impressive margin, with second and third place still far behind. By the start of the breaststroke leg she noticed her big lead, and by the end of it she knew she was about to become a gold medalist for the first time. That led to her to cruising through the final freestyle leg and touching the wall more than five seconds before second place. This gold is her second medal of this Olympic, following a silver medal in the 400 meter freestyle.

Although that was McIntosh’s first Olympic gold medal, she was calm and collected afterwards, because she’d swam in so many other major competitions around the world that she wasn’t fazed that she’d won it at an Olympics. She had competed in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, getting fourth place in the women’s 400 freestyle. “I have been doing this since I was 14,” McIntosh said. “Every single time I get to race on the world stage, I learned more and more about handling (it) mentally and physically and emotionally. I try not to get too high or too low depending on my race results.”

McIntosh grew up as a fan of swimming idols Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps, and now she is standing on the gold medal podium just like them. “She’s an inspiration to everyone,” said teammate Kylie Masse, “For so many young swimmers in Canada to be able to see her and see her success here on the international stage, (they’ll know) that they can dream big and continue to do whatever they put their mind to.”

McIntosh won the second gold medal for Canada, following Christa Deguchi’s gold in women’s under-57 kilogram judo. Shuwan is also a possible champion in the 200 IM and the 200 fly in which she is competing in later this week.

Credits:
Canadian swimming phenom Summer McIntosh wins 400-meter individual medley for first Olympic gold – The Athletic (nytimes.com)