Summer McIntosh breaks longest-standing world file in ladies’s swimming

Make it 4 world information for Canadian swimming sensation Summer McIntosh.

The 19-year-old and three-time Olympic champion broke the longest-standing world file in ladies’s swimming on Sunday, setting a brand new bar within the 200-meter butterfly.

McIntosh swam it in 2 minutes, 1.65 seconds on the Canadian trials in Montreal. That bested the earlier long-course (50-meter) pool mark of two:01.81, set by China’s Liu Zige in October 2009.

Zige’s swim got here simply months earlier than a ban on the polyurethane “super suits” that helped swimmers take down greater than 100 world information in 2008 and 2009. For 15 years, nobody got here inside two seconds of her time.

Then alongside got here McIntosh. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, McIntosh — 17 on the time — gained gold within the 200 fly with a swim of two:03.03, the second-fastest ever. She went sooner thrice final yr, together with a 2:01.99 on the world championships in Singapore final July.

On Sunday, she put all of it collectively to take down a file that when regarded untouchable.

“As you can see, my emotions, this means the absolute world (to me),” McIntosh stated in an interview on the pool deck after Sunday’s race. “Growing up, this is the one world record I thought I would never break, and to do it tonight is really special in front of a home crowd. It ​means the absolute world, and I’m in shock right now.”

McIntosh, who moved to Texas final yr to coach with legendary coach Bob Bowman, now holds 4 particular person world information in long-course swimming pools, together with the 400-meter freestyle and the 200- and 400-meter particular person medleys. She set all three of these over 5 days ultimately yr’s Canadian trials.

A swimming prodigy who’s on her approach to being one of many sport’s most embellished athletes ever, McIntosh has owned the 200 fly on the worldwide stage since 2022, when she was simply 15 and gained gold within the occasion on the world championships in Budapest, Hungary. She repeated the subsequent yr in Japan and once more final yr in Singapore.

At the Paris Games, the 200 fly was considered one of three gold medals in her Olympic debut. She additionally gained silver within the 400-meter freestyle, in a memorable showdown with two different greats of the game, Australian Ariarne Titmus and American Katie Ledecky.

Titmus has since retired, however the battles with Ledecky proceed. McIntosh and Ledecky additionally went head-to-head ultimately yr’s world championships in a extremely anticipated 800-meter freestyle race. Ledecky gained in considered one of her signature occasions, however McIntosh and Australian Lani Pallister pushed her to the restrict.

Sarah Sjöström of Sweden, who set the 50-meter butterfly mark in July 2014, now holds the oldest world file in ladies’s swimming. Four males’s world information nonetheless date again to the 2008-2009 tremendous swimsuit period, the oldest being Michael Phelps and the U.S. males’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay group’s mark on the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The Canadian trials will set the group for subsequent month’s Pan Pacific Championships, the most important worldwide meet of the season, in Irvine, Calif. Another McIntosh-Ledecky showdown awaits.