By: Aiden Ding

Summer McIntosh is Canada’s very own 17-year old swim star, earning her country gold in the 400 IM, one of the hardest races in swimming. She finished in a blistering 4:27:71, a world record for her event. And just to show how superior her time was, Americans Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant who finished second and third, maintained times six seconds slower than Summer.

The 400 IM involves swimming 100 meters or 2 laps of each stroke, in the order of Fly, back, breast, and free.

McIntosh is a two-time world champion and record holder in the 400 IM, and was the favorite for the event in the Paris Olympics. Most expected her to win, but the time and margin by which she won was impressive.

The best part for McIntosh was seeing how far ahead she was on the breaststroke leg and knowing she was going to win her first gold medal of the Olympics. This led to a fairly enjoyable freestyle leg.

After winning, she stayed calm and acted normally. She’s swam this event so many times in major International meets that it wasn’t a big surprise. She also did the women’s 400 freestyle in the Tokyo Olympics, and won fourth.

“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,” she said.
This is her second medal of the games, the first being a race against Katie Ledecky and Ariane Titmus in the 400 free-which she earned silver.

She idolizes Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps. Her cat’s name is Mikey, and she has a poster of Ledecky in her bedroom.
Phelps has the world record of the most gold medals won in a single Olympics. Ledecky is known as the best women’s freestyle distance swimmer. Now Summer is shining on the stage of swimming with her idols.

“She’s an inspiration to everyone,” said teammate Kylie Masse, a competitor in the semifinals in the 100 back on Monday night. “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.”

Summer is the favorite for the 200 fly and the 200 IM-which she will swim later in the meet.