Summer McIntosh Bags Third Swimming Canada Female Swimmer of the Year Nod
Summer McIntosh on Tuesday was announced as the 2024 Swimming Canada Female Swimmer of the Year.
It’s the third straight year that the 18-year-old has earned that distinction, and she adds a fourth straight Female Junior Swimmer of the Year in this, her final year of eligibility.
McIntosh was one of the stars of the Paris Olympics – among all Canadian athletes and swimmers male or female. McIntosh won gold in the women’s 200 butterfly, women’s 200 individual medley and 400 IM and silver in the 400 freestyle. She set Olympic and World Junior records in the 200 fly and 200 IM. She’s the owner of the 400 IM world record from Canadian Trials in May.
McIntosh started the Paris Olympics with the silver, then ascended to the top step of the podium in each of her other races. The 400 IM brought a margin of victory of nearly six seconds over the field.
The 200 fly, a race in which her mother Jill (nee Horstead) swam at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, went down as her favorite.
“Sharing that moment with my family, Team Canada and friends, everyone there cheering me on was an awesome moment,” McIntosh told Swimming Canada. “The 200 fly is one of my favourite events if not my favourite event. It was amazing.”
McIntosh capped the meet with arguably the most impressive medal of the bunch, beating a star-studded field in the 200 IM by .36 seconds for gold.
McIntosh debuted at the Olympics in 2021, making a late charge in the year’s postponement of the Tokyo Games. She finished fourth in the 400 free behind a stacked podium of heavyweights, was ninth in the 200 free to miss the final and helped Canada’s women set a national record in finishing fourth in the 800 free relay. The expectations of what McIntosh, who turned 15 two weeks after the close of the Tokyo Games, could do in the future were astronomical then. But she’s summarily accomplished many of them.
That included maintaining such a high level despite 13 swims over nine days in Paris.
“Overall the whole week – well it was nine days, longer than a week – was a pretty crazy experience,” she said. “I really tried to take it one race at a time. Getting that silver medal the first night got me going and I tried to get better race to race.”
McIntosh is the first swimmer to win the female swimmer of the year three times since Kylie Masse from 2017-19. Masse and McIntosh are tied for the most individual Olympic medals for a Canadian swimmer with four. McIntosh on Tuesday was also named the only aquatics honoree among Forbes’ 30 Under 30 sports figures.
McIntosh, who shifted her training base before Paris to Sarasota, Fla., now has her eyes on the 2024 World Short-Course Championships in Budapest.
“For world short course we have three new rookies on the team, that’s so exciting,” she said. “It’s amazing being on Team Canada and trying to grow Canada bigger and bigger. It’s really promising and exciting. There are more people my age achieving great things, it’s really cool and we’re improving and getting better.”