For the third time this week, Summer McIntosh took home gold and set a world record at the world short course swim championships in Budapest, Hungary.
On Saturday, she swam the women’s 400m individual medley final in four minutes, 15.48 seconds, breaking the previous record held by Spain’s Mireia Belmonte by more than three seconds.
It is the latest feat in an utterly dominant post-Olympic run by McIntosh. The 18-year-old set world-record times earlier this week when she claimed gold in the women’s 200m butterfly (1:59.32) and in the the women’s 400m freestyle (3:50.25).
McIntosh was joined on the podium by Katie Grimes of Great Britain, and American Abbie Wood. Canadian Mary-Sophie Harvey finished in fourth place.
Harvey would go on to a capture a medal elsewhere in the pool on Saturday, as Canada claimed bronze in the mixed 4x100m medley relay. The team of Harvey, Ingrid Wilm, Finlay Knox and Ilya Kharun finished with a time of 3:31.97. They were 1.5 seconds from the top podium spot.
No one has forgotten the “Summer of Summer”, which saw teenage swimming phenom Summer McIntosh collect three gold medals and one silver medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The now-18-year-old is showing that it can also be the “Winter of Summer”, as she took to the pool for her first major competition since Paris 2024—the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Budapest, Hungary.
On Thursday, McIntosh set yet her second world record of the meet, besting a 10-year-old mark in the 200m butterfly. McIntosh swam to a time of 1.59.32. The previous world record of 1:59.61 was set in December, 2014. McIntosh took gold in the 200m butterfly (50m) at Paris 2024. The event is particularly special to McIntosh, as it was the one that her mother contested at the 1984 Games.
McIntosh’s achievement was immediately followed by a gold medal performance by Kharun in the 200m butterfly. Kharun touched the wall with a time of 1:48.24, setting a new national record. He was the bronze medallist in the 200m butterfly (50m) at Paris 2024.
There was also medal action in the pool on Wednesday. Team Canada secured a silver medal in the mixed 4x50m medley relay with a team consisting of Kylie Masse, Finlay Knox, Ilya Kharun, and Ingrid Wilm. Kharun and Wilm also notched individual podium spots, with Kharun swimming to silver in the men’s 50m butterfly, and Wilm swimming to bronze in the women’s 100m backstroke.
McIntosh swam to gold in the women’s 400m freestyle at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) on Tuesday, setting a new world record time of 3:50.25. McIntosh was the silver medallist in the women’s 400m freestyle at Paris 2024, which took place in a 50m pool.
She shared the podium in the event with teammate Mary-Sophie Harvey, who won bronze for her first individual medal at a global championship.
Less than two hours later, McIntosh and Harvey were both back on the podium as Team Canada finished off day one of the meet with a bronze in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay in a time of 3:28.44. The Canadian quartet for the finals consisted of Harvey, McIntosh, Ingrid Wilm and Penny Oleksiak. Team USA won the gold medal with a world record of 3:25.01. Team Australia finished second, 0.19 of a second ahead of the Canadians.
The Canadians weren’t even certain they were going to field a team in the relay, with many of the swimmers carrying heavy racing loads. Wilm is best known as a backstroke specialist. Sydney Pickrem and Alexanne Lepage competed in the relay heats earlier in the session in support of Harvey and McIntosh.
Also reaching the podium was another Paris 2024 Olympian, Finlay Knox, who took bronze in the men’s 200m IM. He missed the silver by a mere two-one hundredths of a second. In the race just before that, Harvey swam to fourth place in the women’s 200m IM.
Competition continues at the short course world championships through Sunday.
