Sport

Summer McIntosh, 17, has everyone’s attention. Now she seeks Olympic glory

James Brown

Editor’s note: This article is part of our “Origin Stories” series, which focuses on athletes’ backstories and topics surrounding the Summer Olympics.

SARASOTA, Florida. — Summer McIntosh even caught the attention of Billie Jean King.

On the night of the women’s 400-meter freestyle final at the Toyota US Open in Greensboro, North Carolina, McIntosh, the Canadian swimming prodigy, approached the starting block. Next to her was American swimming legend Katie Ledecky.

It was the first meeting between McIntosh and Ledecky since the 2023 World Swimming Championships, a clash between two generations of swimmers. Ledecky, 26, is considered the greatest swimmer of all time. McIntosh, 17, is a budding swimming sensation. Ledecky remains motivated to continue her successful career. The American has seven Olympic gold medals and 21 at world championships. McIntosh’s career is just beginning.

The bell rang and the swimmers jumped into the pool. Ledecky took the early lead off the blocks. But into the first turn, McIntosh was in front. She never lost leadership. At the 300m mark, McIntosh was full length ahead of Ledecky. As McIntosh powered through the final 50 meters, she touched the wall, setting a new championship record in the 400m freestyle. McIntosh and Ledecky exchanged a brief congratulations before exiting the pool. This time, the Canadian had finished victorious.

Five days later, King, the tennis icon and gender equality champion, wrote a congratulatory note on social media to McIntosh.

“History was made in the pool last weekend,” King said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Cheers to Summer McIntosh.”

McIntosh is already a four-time world champion and set two world records in 2023. She is charting a path to greatness in swimming, just as Ledecky did as a teenager. Now, McIntosh’s expectations continue to rise with seven months to go until the 2024 Paris Olympics.

It’s 5:45 am in Sarasota, Florida. This is McIntosh’s wake-up call for his Tuesday morning practice. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are the days McIntosh swims twice. There are different calls for attention. On Mondays, McIntosh gets up at 4:15 a.m. local time.

“I’m a deep sleeper, so calming alarms will wake me up slowly and won’t scare me at 4:15,” McIntosh said.

McIntosh has breakfast before heading to the Selby Aquatic Center, home of the Sarasota Sharks swim team that, for more than 60 years, has produced swimmers at the state, national and international levels. Known as the “shark tank,” this is where McIntosh trains with trainer Brent Arckey. In this morning practice, McIntosh hits the pool to warm up before performing a series of freestyle workouts. Practice is from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. He then returns home to take a nap before his afternoon training session.

Early wake-ups and intense training create a regimented schedule. As much as McIntosh embraces the preparation, he admits there are days when motivation isn’t up to par.

“Motivation is not something you always have every day,” McIntosh said. “It comes in waves. But I always have that discipline of no matter how I feel when I wake up, I get to the pool and give my best effort. …I keep moving forward, and it’s those moments where you have to stay disciplined because you have to remember your long-term goals and then you have to implement your short-term goals for that day.”

Here’s how McIntosh prepares for Paris and probably his next big showdown with Ledecky.

For McIntosh, Ledecky is not just any competitor. She is the swimmer whose posters hung on the wall of McIntosh’s childhood bedroom in Etobicoke, Ont., a suburb of Toronto.

McIntosh was five years old when Ledecky won her first Olympic gold at London 2012. Now, the two swim against each other in major races. What attracted McIntosh to Ledecky was more than just their shared skills in long-distance swimming. It’s what McIntosh saw in Ledecky’s personality outside the pool.

“No matter what you accomplish in any sport, they are people too,” McIntosh said. “She is just a down-to-earth person. Getting to know her on a more personal level made me realize that we are all going through the human experience. She made me see the other side of someone I have always idolized as a child.”

McIntosh also admired another American, Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time. A few years ago, McIntosh watched the compilation of Phelps’ record eight gold medal runs at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He even named one of his three cats “Mikey,” after Phelps.

“He trusted the process and took it day by day,” McIntosh said of what he learned from Phelps. “Even when you lack motivation in a day, you can still be disciplined and get the task done.”

McIntosh is part of a successful sports family. Her mother, Jill, was an Olympic swimmer at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Her sister, Brooke, is an ice skater. It’s been a meteoric rise for Summer, who started swimming competitively at age 8. At 14, she was the youngest Canadian on the Tokyo 2020 team. In her first appearance at a world championships, McIntosh won gold in the 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley. At age 16, she set two world records at the 2023 Canadian Trials.

What drives McIntosh? The desire to be the best while having an admirable character.

“Being a good person is the number one priority, and then your sport,” Jill McIntosh said. “I don’t think it would be a very fun journey if you weren’t proud of who you are and at the same time excelled at your sport.”

When McIntosh jumped into the pool on March 28 at the Pan Am Sports Center in Toronto, he didn’t realize a world record was at stake. He was competing in the 400m freestyle final at Canadian Trials. He glided across the pool and, as his lead grew, so did the electric energy of the crowd. He touched the wall with a time of 3:56.08, breaking the world record.

Stepping out of the pool, the stoic McIntosh let out her excitement. After swimming in the morning, she didn’t believe she could set a world record. Photos of McIntosh breaking the record and hugging Arckey are displayed in the coach’s office.

“That image of someone looking at the scoreboard and saying, ‘Oh my God. I just did something I didn’t think was possible, or that I didn’t think I could do.’ “I think that’s why a lot of us go to the pool every day,” Arckey said.

McIntosh became the youngest to break a world record in an Olympic program event since Ledecky in 2013. Four days later, she also set a world record in the 400m individual medley.

“I don’t think Summer has digested that setting world records or personal bests in every event is so difficult to achieve,” Jill said of performance in the trials.

If the Canadian Trials showed pure euphoria, the start of the 2023 world championship highlighted stark disappointment. In the opening session of the finals, McIntosh faced Ledecky and Australian superstar Ariarne Titmus in a highly anticipated 400m freestyle final. It was the first time since the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that the trio competed in the same race.

McIntosh finished fourth and missed the podium. Titmus broke McIntosh’s world record to win gold, while Ledecky came second. A disappointing result for the Canadian. Arckey gave him space.

“She wasn’t happy,” Arckey recalls.

The two had a long conversation. He still had several races left. McIntosh had a day off before returning to the pool. He allowed him to forget the bad race and refocus on what lay ahead. Despite the disappointment, several swimmers approached McIntosh and offered words of encouragement. He was surprised by the great support from the swimming community.

“’Everyone is being so nice to me,’” Jill remembers Summer telling her. “It’s about respect. You have to have respect for your competitors.”

McIntosh won two world championship gold medals, in the 200m butterfly and 400m IM. She won bronze in the 200m freestyle and the 4x100m medley relay. Finishing fourth in the 400 freestyle was in the rearview mirror.

“You learn a lot from having bad races,” McIntosh said. “When I have a negative experience in a race, I try to turn it into a positive experience as much as possible. What I can take away from this is to learn where I went wrong before the race and during the race, learn to refine my focus and discipline to execute my next races as much as possible.”

McIntosh gets one of her teammates to take her back to the “shark tank.” In the car, Drake songs play through the speakers. Before returning to the pool, McIntosh completes 45 minutes of training on dry land. This involves lifting weights, burpees, and grueling squats. All to improve her strength and conditioning in the water.

McIntosh then jumps into the water for a two-hour pool session. Between sets of freestyle, breaststroke and butterfly, McIntosh can be heard laughing with his teammates.

It’s about to be a life-changing seven months for McIntosh, culminating in the Olympics. She has a chance to become the next long-distance swimming superstar. If she wins multiple Olympic gold medals, she will enter a new level of Canadian athletic celebrity. She is similar to swimmer Penny Oleksiak (Canada’s most decorated Olympian) or sprinter Andre de Grasse. Which means more attention.

Once the training is complete, McIntosh leaves the water in the shark tank. She greets a young swimmer who is about to enter the pool to practice. The sun sets over the facility as McIntosh leaves. With the Olympics on the horizon, Canada’s attention continues to grow.

(Top photo of Summer McIntosh showing off her gold medal in the 400m individual medley at the 2023 world championships: Nikola Krstic/BSR Agency/Getty Images)

By James Brown

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