By: Serena She

With the Canadian Flag draped over her and the Olympic Gold Medal hung around her neck, a 17-year-old swimmer calmly sang the Canadian National Anthem, “O Canada,” on July 29, 2024, at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

A native of Toronto, Canada, two-time Olympic medalist Summer McIntosh holds the world record for the Individual Medley at 4 minutes and 24.38 seconds, which she achieved at a Toronto swim meet two months ago. In the Individual Medley in the Olympics, she unsurprisingly finished first in 4 minutes and 27.71 seconds, ahead of her closest opponents, Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant, by a significant margin of around 6 seconds.

Though her lead was evident from the start with Butterfly, the first stroke in Individual Medley, McIntosh ascribed her post-victory composure to her experience. “I have been doing this since I was 14,” she 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.”

McIntosh started competitive swimming when she was 8 years old and has broken over 75 Canadian Age Group records, which is reported in her biography on Canada’s Olympic site. She was only 14 when she competed in her first Olympics at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as the youngest member of the Canadian team, placing fourth in the 400-meter freestyle event.

Since then, she has won 8 medals at the FINA World Aquatic Championships and 6 at the Commonwealth Games, 4 and 2 of which were gold, respectively. In the 2024 Paris Olympics, she also placed second the 400-meter freestyle, earning a silver medal, and first in the July 31st semifinals for the 200-meter butterfly.

McIntosh is scheduled to compete in the finals for the 200m Butterfly on August 1 and the 200m Individual Medley starting August 2, which could possibly earn her two more Olympic titles.