Summer McIntosh named World Female Swimmer of the Year

Summer McIntosh named World Female Swimmer of the Year

At the beginning of a brand new Olympic quadrennial, 2025 was all the time going to be a yr of experimentation for Summer McIntosh.

Now 19, she’ll flip 22 simply after the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, her third Games. It will fall not simply within the prime of her profession however at a central pivot in what’s constructing towards one of many nice careers the game has ever identified, with a home-continent benefit besides.

So the planning accelerated this yr. There could be adjustments in coaching location, a part of rising not simply as a swimmer however as an grownup. There could be powerful selections of occasions, given her unprecedentedly voluminous areas of specialty.

And there could be – for a swimmer who has the potential to achieve heights attained solely by swimmers like Phelps and Ledecky who want no first-name attribution – the type of long-range planning that solely such great skill instructions.

McIntosh summarily aced her first take a look at and is as soon as once more Swimming World’s World Female Swimmer of the Year.

The breakout star of the Paris Olympics gained 4 gold and one bronze medal on the 2025 World Championships in Singapore. She set three world data at Canadian Trials in June, one of many nice single-meet performances in historical past. And she’s completed all of it with the load of a goal on her again.

McIntosh introduced loads of momentum into 2025. Her exploits in Paris – gold within the 200 butterfly, gold in each particular person medleys, silver within the 400 freestyle – made her the meet’s breakout star. She adopted it with three golds, one silver and relay bronze on the World Short-Course Championships, setting world data within the 400 free, 200 fly and 400 IM.

One of McIntosh’s articulated objectives in February was to set a pathway towards the Los Angeles Olympics. She has an embarrassing wealth of choices: The IMs and 200 fly, clearly, however any freestyle distance from 200 to 800 meters, plus perhaps a wildcard just like the 200 backstroke, by which she holds the SCM world junior file. She’s on the lookout for 5 Olympic races, the type of program that’s the province of Michael Phelps and few others.

Part of the method concerned a change of surroundings for not the primary time. The Toronto native decamped after the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 to coach with the Sarasota Sharks. All indicators this time pointed to Austin, which she visited in March and to which she moved after the World Championships. Entrusting her quest for 5 gold medals to Bob Bowman, one of many few to supervise such a journey earlier than, was a no brainer. But her openness to new concepts additionally led to a number of months coaching in Antibes, France, with Fred Vergnoux, a change of tempo that paid clear dividends in the summertime file onslaught.

McIntosh began the yr with a teaser at Sectionals in Florida, setting a greatest time within the 800 free. She vetted occasions at a pair of TYR Pro Swim Series stops, sticking along with her wheelhouse in Westmont, then the 400 free (and a foreshadowing duel with Katie Ledecky) and 200 again in Fort Lauderdale.

That led to Canadian Trials in Victoria, British Columbia, in June. And that led to carnage on the file board the likes of which has not often been seen. A world file of three:54.18 within the 400 free. The third-fastest 800 free time in historical past in 8:05.07. The world file within the 200 IM at 2:05.70. The second-fastest 200 fly in historical past, pursing one of the crucial sturdy of super-suited data. Then the world customary within the 400 IM at 4:23.65.

Singapore lived as much as the racing hype, if for the second straight summer time a serious meet failed to supply record-board resets. McIntosh started with a showdown with Ledecky within the 400 free. The Canadian was greater than two seconds off her trials file, however she managed the race, steadily pulling away from Ledecky, who slid to 3rd, Li Bingjie’s Asian file getting between.

Next got here the 200 IM, a walkover by almost two seconds, with countrywoman Mary-Sophie Harvey third in a particular second for the Canadian program. McIntosh was .99 seconds off her world file.

The solely query within the 200 fly was if Liu Zige’s as soon as untouchable file would vanish. McIntosh, in besting Regan Smith by three seconds, posted the very best textile time in historical past at 2:01.99. But the file’s that means was apparent in McIntosh’s seen disappointment on the close to miss.

There could be extra disappointment within the 800 free, nevertheless slight. Ledecky, authoring a renaissance in instances at age 28, took down her decade-old meet file after having reset the world file in May. They reversed locations from the 400 free podium, McIntosh slipping behind the Oceania file of Lani Pallister for bronze. McIntosh’s 8:07.29 was the tenth quickest efficiency in historical past.

The capper on the week was a spot of Ledeckyan domination within the 400 IM, McIntosh downing her meet mark from Fukuoka in 2023 by going 4:24.78, 7.5 seconds away from the sector.

McIntosh has solely competed as soon as since Worlds, an sickness scrubbing her World Cup slate. At the U.S. Open in her new house pool, she made one other run on the 200 fly mark with a 2:02.62, plus a greatest time within the 100 fly to go along with dalliances with the 100 breast and 100 again.

The impact of her coaching with Bowman is but to be absolutely revealed. That will wait, probably, for the 2026 Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine. When that arrives, McIntosh will likely be simply 40 miles and fewer than two years away from the final word aim of Los Angeles.