Summer McIntosh breaks another world record, smashing decade-old 200m individual medley mark
McIntosh has become one of the most dominant forces in swimming over the last 18 months.
By Ben Morse, CNN
(CNN) — Summer McIntosh made history for the second time in three days at the Canadian Swimming Trials on Monday, producing an inspired performance to break the 200-meter individual medley world record.
In front of a sold-out crowd at Saanich Commonwealth Place in Victoria, the 18-year-old finished with a time of 2:05.70, breaking the previous record of 2:06.12 set by Hungary’s Katinka Hosszú in 2015.
“It’s been one of those records that’s always been in the back of my mind since trials two years ago,” McIntosh, who won gold in the 200m individual medley at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, said afterwards.
“I’ve been knocking on the door on this one. I’ve just tried to chip away, chip away at it. To finally do it, it’s kind of like: ‘Wow, I’ve finally got that done.’”
The 200m individual medley sees swimmers complete a 50m leg of all four stokes – butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle – in one race.
McIntosh credited her record-breaking speed for a clean breaststroke leg which gave her a springboard to go for the mark. Her backstroke leg continued her rapid race, with her leg time of 30.80 being a second faster than when she set the Canadian record last year.
“Breaststroke has always been my weakest so getting through that 50, just trying to get to the wall and knowing that I’ll be really strong in that last 50 because my freestyle has been great here so far.
“Overall, I’m really happy with that time and I always just trying to keep pushing forward, but I’ll have to look over my splits to see where my breaststroke was but happy with it.”
The achievement comes two days after McIntosh had smashed the 400m freestyle world record, trimming more than a second off the previous mark held by her longtime rival Ariarne Titmus, who beat the 18-year-old to the Olympic gold medal in the event at the 2024 Paris Games.
She almost set another world record on Sunday, setting a new Canadian record in the 800m freestyle with 8:05.07. The time was the third-fastest ever and shaved almost five seconds off her own previous record, but McIntosh finished 0.95 seconds short of the world record Katie Ledecky set in May.
She has a chance to continue her successful outing in the pool at the Canadian trials on Tuesday as she swims the 200m butterfly, which she says is her favorite race.
Despite being an established figure on the swimming scene already, McIntosh exploded into the wider sporting conscience last year at the Paris Games where she won three golds and one silver.
Her success was such that Time magazine called it the “Summer of Summer.”
The-CNN-Wire
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