Multi-champion Katie Ledecky, surpassed. Her black beast at the Tokyo Games, Ariarne Titmus, pulverized. And all with just 16 years. The Canadian Summer McIntosh is the new young swimming prodigy, an emerging figure who had been warning about the Japanese Olympic event, who won her first universal gold medals last summer in Budapest and who last morning, at the national championships, signed her first absolute category world record. It was a matter of time and McIntosh broke the clock in the 400-meter freestyle, the one that ventures as the female queen test at the Paris Games. She touched the wall in 3m56s8, lowering Titmus’ mark (3m56s40). Only four women have dropped below four minutes. The three already mentioned and one Federica Pellegrini. In this poker of aces is McIntosh.
In Budapest she had already lowered that barrier but was second in the 400 meters behind Ledecky (3m58s15). But in just nine months she’s taken a three-second bite out of her brand. Her season is turning out to be sensational and this July at the Fukuoka World Cups there will be a great show if Ledecky and Titmus also attend. At her age, McIntosh’s margin of evolution is still great and she is already a breath away from being the first to cover the 400 meters in 3m55. “Normally I don’t get so emotional but this time I cried. Not because of the record, but because I didn’t think she would make it tonight,” McIntosh said.
The fact that he has achieved his first world record is something to a certain extent logical for what he had been anticipating. Still in the junior category at the beginning of March he broke three world records of his age in three days (200 and 400 medley and the 200 free).
Because McIntosh’s versatility is one of his virtues and he will probably be able to swim up to seven events in Paris 2024. She has everything to become a medal collector. In fact, in the 2022 World Cup, she has already hung four (two golds, one silver and one bronze).
Outside of the pools, the Canadian also moves in an ideal environment. She is the youngest of a wealthy family from Toronto, the place where she has set the record. Her mother, Jill Horstead, had been a swimmer in the 1980s. She was at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and was a 1986 Commonwelth medalist (200 fly). Her parent Greg is a successful businessman. Her sister, Brooke, a year older, is also a top-level athlete, an Olympian in figure skating, and a bronze medalist at the last World Cup. The British Ben Titley, who currently works in the CAR of Sant Cugat, was the one who drove all his preparation until the Tokyo Games.
