PARIS – For decades Olympic swimming venues have been a reflection of the long held notion that the sport has two super powers, Australia and the United States, and all the nations are just the supporting cast.
But the Paris La Defense Arena, the swimming venue for these Olympic Games, had a distinctly different feel to it Monday night. Instead Melbourne or Orange County, the arena looked more like Yonge Street or Portage and Main.
Among the sea of Canadian flags and fans face-painted red, white and red – rouge, blanc, et rouge – a spectator held up a sign: “It’s Summer Time In Canada.”
It’s also Summer Time in Paris.
Summer McIntosh, the Toronto 17-year-old filled with patriotism, won the Olympic Games 400-meter individual gold medal Monday night with perhaps the most dominating performance so far in the Paris 2024 swimming competition.
McIntosh touched the wall in 4 minutes, 27.71 seconds, well off the world record of 4:24.38 she set at the Canadian Olympic Trials in May, her nearly six-second margin of victory over American Katie Grimes (4:33.40) was the largest in an Olympic women’s 400 IM final since the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
“I’m just trying to make team Canada proud,” McIntosh said “and set the tone.”
McIntosh’s victory in the opening event of Monday’s evening session also set the tone for a big night for teenagers at the Olympic pool.
Romanian 19-year-old David Popovici’s victory in the 200 freestyle was as razor thin as McIntosh’s triumph was lopsided.
“It was a pure dogfight,” Popovici said. We all fought up until the last stroke with every atom in our bodies.”
Just two-hundredths of a second separated Popovici and runner-up Matthew Richards of Great Britain – 1:44.72 to 1:44.74 – with Luke Hobson of the U.S. finishing only another five-hundredths back for the bronze medal.”It’s historic,” Popovici said. “First gold in men’s swimming for our country. I’m very happy. I couldn’t do it without the country standing behind me and with me. But at the end of the day, I managed this because I did it for me.”
McIntosh first emerged three years ago when, at 14, she was the youngest member of the Canadian team in Tokyo, where she finished fourth in the 400 freestyle.
A year later she won the 200 butterfly and 400 IM at the World Championships.
Then on March 28, 2023, she stunned her nation and the swimming universe by breaking the world record in the 400 freestyle with a 3:56.08 and then came back three days later to lower the 400 IM world record. Saturday she claimed her first Olympic medal, a silver in the 400 freestyle.
“I think just because I have been doing this since I was 14,” McIntosh said. “I mean, obviously it’s very different back in Tokyo two years ago, but every single time I get to race on the world stage I learn more and more about handling it mentally and physically and emotionally. I’m trying not to get too high or too low. So yeah, I mean, obviously I’m super happy.”
