Summer McIntosh

Summer McIntosh was born on August 18, 2006, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was born to father Greg McIntosh and mother Jill Horstead who is a former Canadian swimmer. She competed for Canada at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and won a bronze medal in the women’s 200-meter butterfly at the 1986 Commonwealth Games. McIntosh’s elder sister, Brooke McIntosh, is an international pair skater.

Summer McIntosh, the youngest member of Canada’s Olympic team for the 2020 Summer Games, earned a name for herself at the young age of 14. She finished the 400m freestyle in a stunning fourth position, behind only swimming greats Katie Ledecky and Ariarne Titmus as well as Asian record holder Li Bingjie of China.

At the 2021 World Short Course Championships in Abu Dhabi, Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh had an excellent debut. She won three medals in her first significant international competition, including a silver in the 400-meter individual freestyle, as she edged off Siobhán Haughey to take second place. Moreover, McIntosh, who swam the freestyle leg in the preliminary rounds, gave Canada victories in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay and the 4×100 meter medley relay. Even during the preliminary rounds of the 800-meter freestyle, she broke the Canadian record. However, she withdrew from the race to concentrate on the remaining events.

Summer McIntosh created a big impression in 2022 at the FINA World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, when she made her long course World Championships debut. She became just the fourth woman in history to swim under four minutes in her first event, the 400m freestyle, winning silver with a personal best and national record time of 3:59.39. In the semi-finals of the 200-meter butterfly, the 15-year-old swimmer went on to beat her own world junior record by finishing in a time of 2:05.79. She became the youngest Canadian global champion in history after winning the final and winning her first World title.

McIntosh continued to excel in the 4 x 200 m freestyle relay, swimming the first leg and setting once again another junior world record with a timing of 1:54.79. The Canadian team eventually took home the bronze. McIntosh engaged in a tight competition with American swimmer Katie Grimes in her last event, the 400-meter individual medley, and finally prevailed by 0.63 seconds to take home the gold medal. She made swimming history by being the first Canadian to win two gold medals in a single World Championships. Her stunning performance in Budapest cemented McIntosh’s status as a future star in the swimming community.

McIntosh made waves early in 2023 with performances at the Fort Lauderdale 2023 Pro Swim Series competition, first breaking the 200-meter butterfly junior world and national records. Days later, she defeated swimming legend Katie Ledecky to win the 200-meter freestyle event, shattering Taylor Ruck’s previous national record in the process and establishing a world junior record. Ledecky hadn’t lost a 200-meter or longer domestic final since 2014 before this time. 

At the Canadian Swimming Trials 2023, McIntosh accomplished her first world record at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre at the end of March, winning the 400 meter freestyle event in 3:56.08 seconds, breaking Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus’ previous time of 3:56.40. A few days after that, McIntosh claimed the 400-meter medley with a timing of 4:25.87, shattering Katinka Hossz’s previous world record from the 2016 Summer Olympics. Her sensational performance at the trials has just shown the world what she is capable of and she will continue to shine.