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Summer McIntosh breaks 400m IM world record at Canada Olympic Swimming Trials

NBC Sports
·2 min read

Summer McIntosh broke her own world record in the 400m individual medley at Canada's Olympic Swimming Trials on Thursday evening.

McIntosh, a 17-year-old who trains in Sarasota, Florida, clocked 4 minutes, 24.38 seconds, lowering her record of 4:25.87 from April 2023 set at the same venue — Toronto's Pan Am Sports Centre.

She is now 1.98 seconds faster than the second-fastest performer in history, 2016 Olympic gold medalist Katinka Hosszu of Hungary.

McIntosh won the world title in the 400m IM, considered the decathlon of swimming, in 2022 and 2023. American Katie Grimes took silver in both races.

McIntosh is also a two-time world champion in the 200m butterfly and the second-fastest woman in history in both the 400m freestyle and the 800m free.

The 400m IM, 200m fly and 400m free are her primary events. She could also swim the 200m IM at the Paris Olympics, plus relays. She is not expected to swim the 800m free in Paris.

In the 400m free on the first night of medal competition in Paris, she could be part of a showdown with the last two Olympic gold medalists in the event — Australian Ariarne Titmus and American Katie Ledecky. They are the three fastest women in history in the event.

At last July's world championships, Titmus retook the 400m free world record from McIntosh. Ledecky earned silver, followed by Erika Fairweather of New Zealand and then McIntosh in fourth.

McIntosh, whose mom swam the 200m fly for Canada at the 1984 Olympics, turned 2 years old the day after Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She reportedly has a cat, Mikey, named after Phelps.

When McIntosh was 10 or 11 years old, she put a Ledecky quote on a poster on her bedroom wall. She said it was something along the lines of, "Every race is a sprint. Some are just longer than others."

She made her Olympic debut in Tokyo at age 14 and placed fourth in the 400m free. She was the youngest Canadian Olympian in any sport since 1988, according to the OlyMADMen.

Summer McIntosh chose swimming and became Canada’s big splash

Summer McIntosh, an Olympic swimmer from Canada, is challenging Katie Ledecky while still in high school.