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Summer McIntosh, 17 years old, has everyone’s attention. Now she’s looking for Olympic glory

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Editor’s Note: This article is part of our Origin Stories series, which focuses on the backstories of athletes and topics surrounding the Summer Olympics.

SARASOTA, Fla. – Summer McIntosh even caught the attention of Billie Jean King.

On the evening of the women’s 400-meter freestyle final at the Toyota US Open in Greensboro, NC, McIntosh, the Canadian swimming prodigy, stepped to the starting block. Next to her was American swimming legend Katie Ledecky.

It was the first meeting between McIntosh and Ledecky since the 2023 World Swimming Championships, a clash between two generations of swimmers. Ledecky, 26, is considered the greatest women’s swimmer of all time. McIntosh, 17, is a budding swimming sensation. Ledecky remains motivated to add to her successful career. The American has seven Olympic and 21 world championship gold medals. McIntosh’s career is just beginning.

The buzzer sounded and the swimmers dived into the pool. Ledecky took advantage of the early lead out of the blocks. But at the first corner McIntosh was in front. She never lost the lead. In the 300 meters, McIntosh was a full body length ahead of Ledecky. As McIntosh made her way through the final 50 meters, she hit the wall and set a new championship record in the 400-meter freestyle. McIntosh and Ledecky exchanged a brief congratulations before leaving the pool. This time the Canadian had emerged victorious.

Five days later, King – the tennis icon and gender equality champion – wrote a congratulatory note on social media to McIntosh.

“History was made in the pool last weekend,” King said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Cheers to Summer McIntosh.”

McIntosh is already a four-time world champion and has set two world records in 2023. She is paving her way to greatness in swimming, just as Ledecky did as a teenager. Now McIntosh’s expectations continue to rise with the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris just seven months away.

It’s 5:45 am in Sarasota, Florida. This is McIntosh’s wake-up call for her Tuesday morning workout. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday are McIntosh’s days when she swims twice. There are several wake-up calls. On Monday, McIntosh gets up at 4:15 a.m. local time.

“I’m a deep sleeper, so calming alarms will wake me up slowly and not scare me at 4:15 a.m.,” McIntosh said.

McIntosh has breakfast before heading to the Selby Aquatic Center, home of the Sarasota Sharks swim team that has developed swimmers at the state, national and international levels for more than 60 years. Known as the ‘shark tank’, McIntosh trains here under coach Brent Arckey. During this early morning workout, McIntosh hits the pool for a warm-up before doing a series of freestyle workouts. The training is from 6:30 am to 8:30 am. Then she returns home for a nap before her afternoon workout.

Waking up early and intensive training ensure a tight schedule. As much as McIntosh embraces preparation, she admits there are days when motivation isn’t up to her standards.

“Motivation is not something you always have every day,” McIntosh said. “It comes in waves. But I always have the discipline, no matter how I feel when I wake up, to go to the pool and do my best. … I just keep going, and it’s those moments where you have to stay disciplined because you have to remember your long-term goals and then you have to implement your short-term goals for that day.

Here’s how McIntosh is preparing for Paris, and likely her next big showdown with Ledecky.

For McIntosh, Ledecky is not just a competitor. She is the swimmer whose posters hung on the wall in McIntosh’s childhood room in Etobicoke, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto.

McIntosh was five when Ledecky won her first Olympic gold in London 2012. Now the two swim against each other in the biggest races. What drew McIntosh to Ledecky was more than just their shared long-distance swimming skills. It’s what McIntosh saw in Ledecky’s personality outside the pool.

“No matter what you achieve in any sport, they are only human,” McIntosh said. “She’s just a very down-to-earth person. Getting to know her on a more personal level made me realize that everyone goes through a human experience. It showed me a different side of someone I always idolized growing up.”

McIntosh also looked up to another American, Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time. A few years ago, McIntosh looked at the compilation of Phelps’ record eight gold medal races at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She even named one of her three cats “Mikey” after Phelps.

“He trusted the process and took it day by day,” McIntosh said of what she learned from Phelps. “Even if you don’t have motivation one day, you can still be disciplined and complete the task.”

McIntosh is part of a successful sports family. Her mother, Jill, was an Olympic swimmer at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Her sister, Brooke, is a couples skater. It’s been a meteoric rise for Summer, who started swimming competitively at age 8. At 14, she was the youngest Canadian on the Tokyo 2020 team. In her first World Cup appearance, McIntosh won gold in the 200-meter butterfly and the 400-meter individual medley. At the age of 16, she set two world records at the 2023 Canadian Trials.

What drives McIntosh? The desire to be the best and at the same time have an admirable character.

“Being a good person is the No. 1 priority, and then their sport,” Jill McIntosh said. “I don’t think it would be a very fun journey if you weren’t proud of who you were and excelled in your sport at the same time.”

When McIntosh jumped into the pool at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Center on March 28, she didn’t realize a world record was at stake. She competed in the 400-meter freestyle final at the Canadian Trials. She glided through the pool and as her lead grew, so did the electric energy of the crowd. She hit the wall with a time of 3:56.08, breaking the world record.

As she stepped out of the pool, the stoic McIntosh expressed her emotion. After her morning swim, she didn’t think she could set a world record. The photos of McIntosh breaking the record and hugging Arckey are on display in the coach’s office.

“That picture of someone looking at the scoreboard and saying, ‘Oh my God. I just did something that I didn’t think was possible, or that I didn’t think I could do.” I think that’s why a lot of us come to the pool every day,” Arckey said.

McIntosh became the youngest to break a world record at an Olympic program event since Ledecky in 2013. Four days later, she also set a world record in the 400-meter individual medley.

“I don’t think Summer has digested the fact that it’s so difficult to set world records or personal records in every single event,” Jill said of the trial performance.

While the Canadian Trials showed pure elation, the start of the 2023 World Championships revealed raw disappointment. The opening final saw McIntosh take on Ledecky and Australian superstar Ariarne Titmus in a highly anticipated 400m freestyle final. It was the first time since the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games that the trio took part in the same race.

McIntosh finished fourth and missed the podium. Titmus broke McIntosh’s world record by winning gold, while Ledecky finished second. A disappointing result for the Canadian. Arckey gave her space.

“She wasn’t happy,” Arckey remembers.

The two had a long conversation. She still had a few races to go. McIntosh had the day off before returning to the pool. It allowed her to wash away the bad race and refocus on what lay ahead. Despite the disappointment, several swimmers reached out to McIntosh and offered words of encouragement. She was surprised by the support from the swimming community.

“Everyone is so nice to me,” Jill remembers Summer telling her. “It’s all about respect. You have to respect your competitors.”

McIntosh went on to win two gold medals at the world championships, in the 200-meter butterfly and the 400-meter IM. She won bronze in the 200-meter freestyle and the 4×100-meter medley relay. Fourth place in the 400 free was in the rearview mirror.

“You learn so much from bad races,” McIntosh said. “If I have a negative experience in a race, I try to make it a positive experience as much as possible. What I can take away from that is learning where I went wrong in the lead up to the race and during the race, and learning to refine my focus and discipline to execute as much as possible in my next races.

McIntosh gets a ride from one of her teammates back to the “shark tank.” In the car, Drake songs blast through the speakers. Before heading back into the pool, McIntosh completes 45 minutes of training on dry land. This includes lifting weights, burpees and burnout squats. Everything to improve her strength and fitness in the water.

Then McIntosh jumps into the water for a two-hour pool session. In between sets of freestyle, breaststroke and butterfly, you can hear McIntosh laughing with her teammates.

It’s about to be a life-changing seven months for McIntosh, culminating in the Olympics. She has a chance to become the next superstar in long-distance swimming. If she wins multiple Olympic gold medals, she will enter a new level of Canadian athletic celebrity. Similar to fellow swimmer Penny Oleksiak (Canada’s most decorated Olympian) or sprinter Andre de Grasse. That means more attention.

With the training complete, McIntosh steps out of the water at the shark tank. She says hello to a young swimmer who is about to enter the pool for practice. The sun is setting over the facility as McIntosh leaves. With the Olympic Games on the horizon, the Canadian’s attention continues to grow.

(Top photo of Summer McIntosh showing her gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley at the 2023 world championships: Nikola Krstic / BSR Agency / Getty Images)

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