Swimmer Summer McIntosh once more named The Canadian Press feminine athlete of the yr

Summer McIntosh continued to blaze a path within the pool in 2025.

The 19-year-old swimmer from Toronto was voted The Canadian Press feminine athlete of the yr for a 3rd straight yr.

McIntosh received 4 gold medals on the world championship in Singapore after setting three world information at nationwide trials.

She turned simply the second lady to assert gold in 4 particular person occasions at a single world championship after American star Katie Ledecky in 2015.

The Canadian set herself up for a monster meet in Singapore when she lowered world information within the 400-metre freestyle and particular person medley, and 200-metre particular person medley throughout June’s trials in Victoria.

“Whenever I go into a trials, I’m always trying to chase world records, but going to Singapore, which was way longer of a meet, and you’re across the world and there’s a lot more external things that are completely out of your control, it was just trying to get my hand on the wall first in as many events possible,” McIntosh mentioned.

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McIntosh was quietly assured in stating her purpose of 5 gold medals in 5 races in Singapore.

“Any time I get in the water, and I do a race, I’m trying to win,” McIntosh mentioned. “I know that doesn’t even come close to happening every time, but especially when it comes to my best events at an Olympics or a world championships, my goal is always to get the gold for Canada.

“Saying it out loud additionally makes me understand it extra and in addition makes it really feel extra actual for me.”

She came close to her goal with victories in the 400 and 200 individual medleys, 400 freestyle and 200 butterfly. McIntosh also took bronze behind victor Ledecky in the 800 free.

“Even all the way in which from Singapore, all of Swimming Canada, all of us felt the love and assist again residence,” she said. “It was so enjoyable coming again.

“It keeps me motivated in the times where you might be tired or something, and you just have to keep pushing, moving forward, knowing that Canada is behind you and supporting you.”

The Canadian Press yearly awards for prime female and male athletes, and prime workforce, are decided by a vote of editors, writers and broadcasters from CP consumer information organizations throughout the nation.

third yr in a row

McIntosh was the second lady to earn CP’s feminine athlete award three straight years after determine skater Barbara Ann Scott from 1946 to 1948.

McIntosh obtained 34 of 53 votes forward of rugby participant Sophie de Goede (8), tennis participant Victoria Mboko (5) and bike owner Magdeleine Vallieres (3).

Ski cross racer Marielle Thompson, hockey participant Marie-Philip Poulin and hammer thrower Camryn Rogers every obtained a vote.

McIntosh’s accomplishments in 2025 have been the overwhelming alternative amongst voters.

“I like her swagger,” wrote Waterloo Region Record information editor Brian Williams. “She tells everyone she’s going for gold and then does it. Medals of any other colour are not good enough for her.”

CP’s feminine athlete award was first given in 1932 to sprinter Hilda Strike, a double Olympic silver medallist in monitor and area.

It’s been an annual recognition since then, apart from 4 years in the course of the Second World War, and in 1950 and 2000 when the award was for feminine athlete of the half-century and century respectively.

Other girls have claimed it for 3 or extra years, however not three in succession. Golfer Marlene Streit was chosen 5 occasions (1952, 1953, 1956, 1957 and 1963).

Training with one of the best

After successful three gold medals and one silver on the 2024 Paris Olympics, McIntosh moved her coaching base from Florida to France to work with coach Fred Vergnoux forward of the trials and world championships.

She later relocated to Austin, Texas, following the world championships to hitch Bob Bowman’s professional group.

“2025 was a pretty crazy year for me just because I was kind of moving around a lot,” McIntosh mentioned.

“It was a big learning experience for me, and it was probably one of the most challenging training periods of my life, along with going into Singapore. I knew that it was definitely going to be even more challenging than the Olympic Games, with the hope to get five golds.

“I discovered rather a lot. I swam rather a lot.”

Bowman was the mastermind behind Michael Phelps and his career 23 Olympic gold medals, as well as Frenchman Leon Marchand’s four gold medals in Paris.

McIntosh now trains alongside Marchand and American Olympic medallists Regan Smith and Simone Emmanuel in Austin.

“To have folks this quick on the boys’s and ladies’s facet to push me each single day, there’s nothing prefer it actually,” she said.

McIntosh fell ill in October with an ailment that went undiagnosed. A complication from a spinal tap to test for viral meningitis put her in bed for a week.

She missed all three stops on the World Cup tour, including one in her hometown of Toronto.

“It was fairly heartbreaking simply because I had carried out a lot onerous coaching with Bob previous to that,” McIntosh said.

McIntosh rebounded in December’s U.S. Open with victories in the 400 freestyle, in the second-fastest time ever behind her own world record, and 200-metre butterfly.

“You by no means know when you are going to get taken out of the water,” she said. “Go to observe day by day, grateful and hold pushing and transferring ahead and keep wholesome for positive.”

With no Olympic Games or world championships on the menu in 2026, what’s next for McIntosh?

“I’m actually simply centered on seeing if I can decrease my very own world information and break some new ones as properly,” she mentioned.