‘Generational expertise’: Michael Phelps’s former coach says comparisons to Summer McIntosh are truthful

Without a second’s hesitation, unflinching actually, legendary swimming coach Bob Bowman jumped to his reply when requested if the various comparisons made between the best swimmer ever — Michael Phelps — and Canadian swimming sensation Summer McIntosh had been warranted and truthful.

“I think it’s very fair because they swim almost identical programs. They’re generational talents, they work at a very high level and so I certainly understand the similarities,” Bowman stated inside his coach’s workplace on the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center on Saturday night. 

“I want to take her as far as she can go. And if she does that, I think she’ll end up being right up there.“

McIntosh is coming off last summer’s world championships in Singapore where she won four individual gold medals and a bronze — Phelps is the only swimmer ever to have won five individual gold medals at a single world championships.

Bowman helped shape Phelps into a gold medal-winning machine, all while guiding him through the hoopla and attention that came with Phelps being that dominant.

“I think that as she grows and there are more demands placed on her, particularly leading into L.A., how we manage all that will be very important, and that’s where I’ve had this unique experience with Michael where I understand that part,” Bowman stated.

 

For the final 5 months Bowman has been teaching McIntosh as part of his professional crew on the University of Texas. He’s the Director of Swimming and head males’s coach of the Longhorns swimming and diving groups — and likewise trains a professional group that McIntosh is now a part of.

The Toronto native made the transfer to Austin to affix forces with the coach who helped lead Phelps to 23 Olympic gold medals forward of the L.A. 2028 Games.

McIntosh breaks 17-year-old report

On Saturday night, McIntosh broke her second pool report in two consecutive nights in the course of the Pro Swim Series meet. Her time of 4 minutes 28.13 seconds within the 400m particular person medley took down Kirsty Coventry’s — the now IOC President — report set in 2008. 

McIntosh’s time was about four-and-a-half seconds slower than her world report time within the occasion however each coach and athlete had been happy with the efficiency. 

“I liked her breaststroke, the first part. We’ve been working on that. She got a little tired at the end. I did not like her backstroke. We need to spend more time on that, but overall, it’s a pretty solid swim,” Bowman stated.

“It’s pretty heavy training now, probably more than she’s been under for a while.”

Bowman doesn’t mince his phrases relating to breaking down a race or coaching session, one thing McIntosh craves, generally brutal honesty, and has been thriving below since arriving.

Their evaluation of how the 400m IM went was fairly related.

“I’m pretty happy with that. I mean, my breaststroke was pretty good, but I talked to Bob after my race. The backstroke definitely needs to be a bit better than that, but I felt pretty strong about the race. Like it wasn’t brain numbingly painful, which sometimes that can happen,” McIntosh stated.

Swimming Canada high-performance director John Atkinson attended the Pro Swim Series this week in Austin — it was an opportunity for him to examine in on McIntosh and contact base with Bowman. 

Atkinson has been clear about his philosophy relating to Canadian swimmers attending different applications — that he helps it and is doing his greatest to make sure the athlete’s greatest pursuits are being taken care of. 

“Bob will guide and he will challenge and he will look after Summer. I had meetings with him this week and we were completely aligned as to how he’ll work with the national program, and that’s important that Summer knows that Bob sees us as a resource from Swimming Canada to help where we can,” Atkinson stated. 

“Summer and Bob know where they’re going and what they’re doing, and that’s all that really matters.”

McIntosh says she has immense respect for Bowman, not solely due to his resumé through the years however how he reveals up on the pool for coaching periods and competitions. 

“He’s an amazing coach and we’re just getting started and getting to know each other. But so far it’s been great. He’s extremely down to earth and actually very easy to talk to, even though he is the Bob Bowman,” she stated. 

“He comes on deck every day with a great attitude. He wants to be there. He coaches every single metre that we do, he’s fully engaged in the practice. I just think that kind of rubs off on all of the swimmers and we kind of carry that sort of attitude towards our own swimming as well.”

Mutual admiration

There is mutual admiration, as Bowman was conscious of her abilities from afar however now as he will get a better look as her coach, he’s wildly impressed.

“What makes her great is her mindset for sure. She is kind of unflappable in the training and also in the meets, at least from what I’ve seen so far. I haven’t taken her to a big meet, but I’ve seen her at these meets — she sticks to the plan. She focuses on what she needs to do, and she’s willing to do the preparation, which is the important part,” Bowman stated.  

“And so when she comes in every day of practice, I can give her anything and she will say thank you and what else do you want me to do. That’s her attitude.  It’s like whatever it takes, she is willing to do.”

The extremely aggressive coaching setting is laced with the who’s who within the swimming world, together with Olympic champions Leon Marchard, Hubert Kos, Simone Manuel and Regan Smith — it’s precisely the place McIntosh needs to be.

“I only knew a few people before I moved down here and obviously it’s very intimidating knowing this is the best college team on the men’s side and one of the best on the women’s side. And then of course, the pros, all of them are Olympic medallists, some of them Olympic champions. So I think that was the only thing that was a bit nerve-wracking, the social aspect and getting to know everyone and trying to fit in,” McIntosh stated. 

“As soon as I got here, that kind of all just went away immediately and everyone was so welcoming and nice to me, and I think we all share the passion of the sport, so everyone gets along really well and everyone wants to make each other better.”

Big objectives for L.A. 2028

Not solely higher, however the most effective. That’s what McIntosh needs for her profession, to be remembered as one of many greats.

Bowman says she made that abundantly clear throughout their first assembly. 

“She’s got big goals. I know exactly what they are. We talked about them on minute one. She told me everything she wants to do,” Bowman stated.

“They’re all doable and I think we have a plan to get there. I just think she has to enjoy these steps along the way and just keep feeling like she’s getting better incrementally. And if we do that for the next two years, she’ll be where she wants to be.”

To be very clear, these large objectives embody profitable 5 gold medals on the L.A. Olympics. It’s one thing McIntosh has grow to be very snug vocalizing to her coach and plenty of others.

“I think when you’re chasing something that is as hard as getting five individual gold medals at an Olympic Games, you have to be able to say it out loud and you have to be able to share that dream with your coaches and people who are surrounding you, because it’s not going to come easy,” McIntosh stated.

“It’s something that you have to devote yourself to every single day. Even saying it out loud to Bob Bowman as well, I feel like it kind of makes it more real for me and of course he’s been through someone trying to get eight gold medals before, so he knows what it takes to get there.”

Closing in on one other world report

And whereas racking up gold medals is all the time on her thoughts, McIntosh was additionally open to speaking about world information — particularly the 200m butterfly world report she’s been monitoring down and getting very near breaking.

“I think if there’s one more world record I would want to get, if I could only get one more, it would definitely be the 200 fly just because it is my favourite event and I think that’s by far one of the hardest, if not the hardest, world record to get on the women’s side,” McIntosh stated.  

“I definitely want to try and take that one down just as I was 0.18 at the last world championships from it.”

The 200m butterfly world report is held by China’s Liu Zige with a time of two:01.81, set on the 2009 Chinese National Games in the course of the super-suit period.

Both McIntosh and Bowman acknowledge they’re nonetheless attending to know one another, determining what works and what doesn’t work — they aren’t attempting to point out their playing cards to fellow rivals so early of their partnership collectively. 

“We’re trying to really think long term to the end of the summer, so we’re not trying to wow anybody with what we’re doing right now because she needs to put in the work, so that’s what we’re doing,” Bowman stated. 

“I think her avenues of improvement right now are strength. She can get stronger physically. I think that’s very important. There are some technical things we’re still working on.”

Striking a stability

While McIntosh continues to work on her swimming, she’s additionally enrolled in an accounting class on the University of Texas, starting in lower than two weeks. It’s one thing she says is essential in serving to present stability exterior of the pool.

“Getting a university education has always been very important to me, and my high school was kind of dragged out because of the timing of the Olympics. It’s really important to get an education. You can’t swim forever,” she stated.

 For now, Bowman and McIntosh discover themselves pushing one another every day to be that significantly better, one thing they each get quite a lot of enjoyment from. 

“She comes to the pool and takes care of all her business. I love that because she has to own it and she has to make it happen. So she’s incredibly mature,” Bowman stated.  

“I think it’s important that she kind of keeps learning and growing. That’s where you stay engaged, right? And same with Michael. Like when we started running out of things that were new, it got old. So, fortunately, everything we do for her is new this year. We only have two more years to go, but we’ll keep varying things. We’ll keep changing the emphasis.”