What makes Summer McIntosh so quick? Look to lengthy arms, race automobiles and rowboats

It’s the query your entire swimming world has been asking ever since Summer McIntosh made herself recognized on the world stage by qualifying for the COVID-delayed Tokyo Olympics on the age of 14. The Canadian swimmer completed fourth within the 400-meter freestyle there, however she received two gold medals a yr later on the 2022 World Aquatics Championships (within the 200m butterfly and 400m particular person medley), and the world knew Canada had a star in its ranks.

Fast ahead 4 years, and McIntosh is on observe to develop into one of many sport’s largest names ever. At 19, she is a three-time Olympic champion, eight-time world champion and two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist. She additionally holds world information within the 200m butterfly, 200m particular person medley (IM), 400m freestyle and 400m IM.

So good is McIntosh that on Thursday on the Pan Pacific Championships — the most important meet of the yr for swimmers within the Americas and Oceania — she simply received the 400m IM in an event-record time of 4 minutes, 28.01 seconds … and was upset by it. It’s the Tenth-best swim within the occasion’s historical past, and she or he now owns 10 of the 11 prime instances, however it was greater than 4 seconds off her personal file.

“Overall just not happy with it,” she stated after the race. “I should be capable of more based on my training and (I was) way far off my world record. So I need to reflect on what went wrong and see how I can improve.”

That’s a scary thought for the sector forward of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, the place McIntosh is concentrating on gold medals in 5 occasions.

“When you’re that good, that young, you’re gifted,” British former world champion swimmer Mark Foster stated. He made the GB nationwide crew on the age of 15 and received his first Commonwealth Games medal at 16 however describes himself as “good” somewhat than nice.

“The greats are the ones that can either dominate a race for a long period of time, like Adam Ramsay-Peaty (the GB swimmer who won the 100m breaststroke at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics),” Foster stated, “or they can float across a few different events, medal in all of them and win some of them.

“She’ll (Summer) win 200-meter fly at the Olympics, but she’ll also win the 400-meter freestyle, maybe 800-meter freestyle, maybe 200-meter breaststroke. She’ll win the 200-meter medley, the 400-meter medley — she’s just that good.”

How does she do it?

John Atkinson has been excessive efficiency director and nationwide coach of Swimming Canada since 2013 and has seen up shut the expertise and arduous work that has gone into McIntosh’s unbelievable profession thus far. He advised The Athletic that her “ability to train for all four strokes, focused on 200-meter and 400-meter events, having shown she is world-class in the 800 free and can race with speed in 100-meter events, is remarkable and only possible with talent coupled with an attention to detail that makes her a special athlete.”

McIntosh’s mom, Jill Horstead, was additionally an Olympic swimmer who competed for Canada within the 200m butterfly on the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, ending ninth with a time of two minutes, 13.49 seconds.

At the Canadian swimming trials final month, McIntosh swam the identical occasion in 2:01.65, breaking the longest-standing world file in ladies’s swimming of two:01.81, set by China’s Liu Zige in October 2009.

Good genetics are only one think about what makes McIntosh the swimming powerhouse she is.

Height just isn’t certainly one of them. Standing at 5 ft 8 inches (173 cm), she just isn’t among the many tallest world-level feminine swimmers (although additionally not the shortest). What she does have, although, is a wingspan of 180cm, some seven centimeters longer than she is tall. “Having long arms compared to your body length does contribute,” stated Foster, who names 23-time Olympic champion Michael Phelps as one other swimmer who famously had a powerful wingspan (round 201cm, whereas his top was 193cm).

A bigger wingspan means a swimmer’s arms can attain additional and offers them extra pulling energy by means of the water.

Summer McIntosh’s wingspan — longer than she is tall — helps give her superior pulling energy by means of the water. She owns world information in 4 occasions. (Alex Slitz / Getty Images)

What’s extra necessary than wingspan to creating a swimmer quick, although, Atkinson stated, is the “application of power in the stroke technique and having endurance to maintain this.”

The energy in McIntosh’s strokes is available in half from her very efficient “catch” approach, which refers back to the approach a swimmer’s arm and hand are positioned as soon as they enter the water and the way effectively they “catch the water,” pushing it backward.

“The more water you can hold and use, the more efficient you are,” stated Foster, who compares a swimmer to a race automobile. “A race car on skinny tires is not going to get a lot of traction. A race car on thick tires: a lot of traction.”

McIntosh’s catch encompasses a excessive elbow and fingers pointing instantly down towards the underside of the pool, leading to a robust grip on the water.

It’s one of many issues that two-time Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington notices about McIntosh’s approach: “She gets her hand and forearm into a strong position early, creating a bigger surface area to push against, rather than her hand slipping through the water,” Adlington advised The Athletic. “It means she gets a lot from every stroke, which is part of why she looks so effortless.”

Efficiency is one phrase that comes up constantly when speaking to individuals about McIntosh and the best way she strikes by means of the water. What does that seem like within the pool? When it involves swimming, “Efficiency is essentially the reduction of drag,” stated Justin Richardson, head senior coach at Swim Neptune and founding father of Peak Performance Swimming.

He factors to McIntosh’s physique line and physique place as being among the many most necessary points in relation to her effectivity: “She always rides up high on the water, especially in butterfly and freestyle. Hips are always up high, legs are never sinking. She keeps her kick up high in the water by engaging her posterior chain, her head position is steady on the surface in freestyle, and her breath is low and quick in butterfly.

“This ties into stroke efficiency and strength. Since she maintains such a great body line, she moves through the water more easily. She is also putting her body in a position that allows her to maximise her strength. Put these together, and you can see how she gets so much distance with each stroke while keeping her stroke count low and under control.”

McIntosh’s physique place is right down to “a combination of core strength, body alignment, head position, kick and technique,” Adlington stated. “She stays incredibly horizontal and streamlined, with her hips high, which reduces drag. She has this across most of her strokes, not just front crawl.”

At 19, Summer McIntosh is already on the prime of girls’s swimming. She has received 11 gold medals throughout the Olympics and world championships. (Quinn Rooney / Getty Images)

Foster compares swimmers to hurry boats in the best way they propel themselves up excessive within the water to assist acquire extra velocity. McIntosh, he stated, “looks really light on the water; she sits really high.

“That goes down to catching water because when we swim, we don’t just pull ourselves forwards, we lift ourselves out and forwards. All the resistance is in the water, not on top of it. So you pop your body up like a speedboat. The more on top of the water you are, the faster you are.”

Another necessary piece of the puzzle is McIntosh’s engine. “She does not fall apart at the end of her races,” Richardson stated. “Her technique does not decay or get worse when she is tired.

“Pair that with her ability to hold body position and really grab the water, and she is able to hold a faster pace and more efficient stroke for longer than those she is racing.”

Not solely can she maintain her tempo, however she will be able to improve it when she must: “She seems able to change gears incredibly well,” Adlington stated. “She can settle into a pace and look completely controlled, but then has another level when she needs it.”

While Foster stops in need of thrusting the time period “perfection” on McIntosh, he stated that her approach comes about as near it as doable:

“Her stroke is near perfect. Add that to her power to weight, the efficiency that she has and all the things you can’t see on top of the water — body rotation, timing of the hands passing the hips. … She’s like a rowing boat. You watch a lot of rowers in the Olympics, and if they’re pulling a bit too fast, or they’re out of sync, they don’t go very well.

“Whereas if it’s all in time and in tempo, you can really see the boat move forward at a rate. And her timing is as perfect as it can be.”

— The Athletic’s Peter Baugh contributed to this report.