Welcome to the Summer of Summer (McIntosh) at the Paris Olympics

Canadian swimmer Kyle Masse had just completed her semifinal heat in the 100-m breaststroke on Monday, to qualify for tomorrow night’s final in that event, when a journalist asked her about another athlete: Summer McIntosh, the 17-year-old Canadian swimming phenom who earlier in the evening won the gold medal in the 400-m individual medley (IM), clinching her second medal of these Games, and first Olympic gold. Typically, an individual sport athlete isn’t too keen on discussing someone else, in another race, when fretting about her own results. 

Masse, however, started to gush. “She's an inspiration to everyone,” says Masse. “And I know so many young swimmers in Canada, to be able to see her and see her success here on the international stage, is knowing for them that they can dream big and continue to do whatever they put their mind to.”

McIntosh caught the end of Masse’s observations, and expressed gratitude. Then Masse stepped out of the media scrum to let swimming’s future—not to mention very much its present— take center stage. 

Night three of competition in the Olympic pool in Nanterre, France, just west of Paris, continued to see slower-than expected times, due, some people think, to the relatively shallow depth that creates choppy conditions and slows an athlete’s swim. McIntosh was the only one who crushed the field, winning her race by nearly 6 seconds, ahead of silver medalist Katie Grimes and bronze winner Emma Weyant, both of Team USA. Though the four other finals on Monday were shorter distances, no race was decided by more than .54 seconds. The men’s 200-m freestyle final was a particular thriller, with Romanian David Popovici edging Matthew Richards of Great Britain by 0.02 seconds: Luke Hobson of the U.S. won bronze, finishing 0.07 seconds behind Popovic.

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Team USA finished with four medals on the night. Besides Grimes, Weyant and Hobson, Ryan Murphy finished third in the 100-m backstroke, behind Thomas Ceccon of Italy, who won with a time of 52.00 seconds, and Jiayu Xu, who earned silver in 52.32-seconds. Murphy’s time was 52.39 seconds.  He won this event in 2016, in Rio, and finished with another bronze in Tokyo. 

Afterwards, Murphy found out the gender of his future child: his wife Bridget, who’s expecting in January, held up a sign at La Defense Area that said  “It’s A Girl.” 

“That really brought this night up to a whole other level,” he says. 

American Lilly King finished fourth in the 100-m breaststroke, the event she won at the Rio Olympics and remains the current world record holder in. She finished with a bronze in Tokyo, but was in good spirits in Paris despite just missing a medal. In the runup to Tokyo, she was burned out. “I know this race happened three years ago, but it completely broke me,” she said. ‘I don’t feel broken tonight.” Heats in the 200-m breaststroke start Wednesday. 

The night belonged to McIntosh, the 400-IM world record holder who now adds an Olympic gold to her mantle. McIntosh, who made her Olympic debut in Tokyo at 14, led at every turn; by the breaststroke portion, from 200 through 300-m, it was barely a two-person race, with McIntosh retaining her lead over Grimes by a healthy distance. By the time the final freestyle leg got going, McIntosh felt certain she had it. “I kind of looked around to make sure I was in a comfortable lead,” she said. “I definitely knew I had the gold medal.” 

McIntosh comes from an athletic family: Her mother, Jill (née Horstead), swam for Canada at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and her older sister, Brooke, is an elite pairs figure skater who competed in the 2020 Youth Olympics. a pairs figure skater at the 2020 Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne. She grew up playing soccer, and tried gymnastics, figure skating, horseback riding, and even artistic swimming. Her family named its cat, Mikey, after Michael Phelps. Two years ago, McIntosh moved from Toronto to Sarasota, Fla. to train with the Sarasota Sharks, an elite club. McIntosh beat Katie Ledecky in the 800-m freestyle back in February, handing Ledecky her first loss in that event in 13 years. She edged Ledecky out for silver in 400-m freestyle on Saturday; then had to leave the medals ceremony early to race in the 4 X 100m freestyle relay final that same night (Canada finished fourth).    

She’s Ledecky’s heir apparent as the standout performer in global women’s swimming.  And with the 200-m butterfly and the 200-m IM still to come, she’s far from done in Paris. “Every single time I get to race on the world stage, I learn more and more about handling it mentally, physically, and emotionally. And try not to get too high or too low based on my race results. Obviously, I’m super happy with the result. But now, I’m all about the 200 fly.” 

That’s on Wednesday night. Don’t miss the summer of Summer.