The Paris summer of Summer?
New Zealand’s big hope in women’s swimming at the Olympics will be up against a Canadian who could be the female equivalent of Michael Phelps.
Earlier this month, swimming fans thought they had stumbled upon a scoop in the back channels of the internet.
A potential clue appeared on a website for a Canadian company that manages investment solutions.
“Did Summer McIntosh’s new sponsor just leak her Olympics trial schedule?” screamed a headline on the SwimSwam news website.
Ever since Summer McIntosh stepped out as a 14-year-old at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, there has been immense interest in the Canadian, who will celebrate her 18th birthday a week after the Games finish in Paris.
It is not hyperbole that McIntosh could become the female equivalent of Michael Phelps if everything goes to plan in Paris. (McIntosh named her cat Mikey after Phelps, who is widely regarded as the greatest Olympian ever with 28 medals to his name).
She is certainly carrying the weight of a nation, a country that has only won two swimming gold medals this century.
McIntosh, from Toronto, would have finished sixth on the medal tally at last year’s world swimming championships if she had competed as an individual. And everyone is curious to know what individual events she will enter.
The first clues about McIntosh’s Paris schedule will be revealed this week at Canada’s Olympic trials.
First up tomorrow is the women’s 400m freestyle. This time last year, at Canada’s trials, McIntosh stunned the world by breaking Australian Ariarne Titmus’ world record.
It was an ominous message to the reigning Olympic champion just before the world championships in Fukuoka.
However, Titmus swam the race of her life in Japan to regain her world record and crush McIntosh, who finished fourth behind American Katie Ledecky and New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather. Although the Kiwi went on to win gold in this event at the world championships in Doha in February this year, Titmus and McIntosh elected not to attend.
But back to the online “leak”. One of McIntosh’s sponsors, Ninepoint Partners, sparked a frenzy among swimming fans by listing five events on its website that the teenager would enter in Toronto.
However, official entry sheets show seven individual races, one a day from tomorrow: the 400m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 400m individual medley, 100m freestyle, 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley.
This year, McIntosh became the first person in 13 years to beat Ledecky in an 800m freestyle final, but won’t race the event in Paris because of a clash with the 200m IM.
There is a decent chance McIntosh will qualify for – and enter – five individual events at the Olympics: the 200m and 400m freestyle, both medleys (200m and 400m), plus the 200m butterfly. Her best times in all five events, since the start of 2023, rank in the top three among her peers.
No female swimmer has ever won five individual gold medals at the same
Olympics. East Germany’s Kristin Otto holds the record with four at Seoul in 1988. Phelps won five individual gold medals in 2004 and 2008, plus others in relays.
Shane Gould’s haul of five individual medals for Australia in Munich in 1972 – three gold, one silver, one bronze – is still the record for women. Emma McKeon won seven medals for Australia in Tokyo, but four were in relays.
McIntosh has tried to keep a low profile since Fukuoka.
“It’s super important to have that balance and have a life outside the pool,” McIntosh said last year. “For me, it’s just hanging out with my friends or going to the mall. If I’m back home, I would probably just chill with my cats. I’m pretty tired from training.”
Canada’s trials are one thing but doing it on the biggest stage will be McIntosh’s biggest test. – Sydney Morning Herald