Canadian Olympic star swimmer Summer McIntosh already has two medals under her belt at the Paris 2024 Games, but she has a good shot at adding another gold to her collection.
The 17-year-old has been turning heads at this year’s Olympics, capturing a silver medal in the women’s 400m freestyle and a dominant gold medal in the women’s 400m individual medley.
For an Olympian of any age, that would be the haul of a lifetime, but McIntosh may not be done yet. After posting the fastest time in the semi-finals of the women’s 200m butterfly earlier today, the Ontario swimmer is positioned to have an excellent chance of snagging her second gold of the Games.
Her time of 2:04.87 was just under a second faster than the second-place swimmer, America’s Regan Smith, who had a time of 2:05.39.
Natation 🏊 : la Canadienne 🇨🇦 Summer McIntosh réussit un temps de 2 m 04 s 87/100 et termine 1re de sa demi-finale au 200 m papillon. 🙌@summermcintoshh @swimmingcanada #rcsports #paris2024 pic.twitter.com/i1HcLpwlxU
— Radio-Canada Sports (@RC_Sports) July 31, 2024
Looking back on McIntosh’s recent history with this event paints a very positive picture of her chances in tomorrow’s final. She won a gold medal in the event at the 2023 FINA World Aquatics Championships, and though she did not attend the 2024 championships, her time in the Olympic semi-final was nearly three seconds faster than the one that reigning world champion Laura Stephens put up at that event.
It’s an event that McIntosh has a personal connection to. Her mother, Jill Horstead, also competed in this same race for Canada at the 1984 Olympics in LA, where she finished in ninth place. CBC Sport’s Devin Heroux was able to ask McIntosh about following in her mother’s footsteps and potentially winning a medal in it.
“It would mean the world,” McIntosh said. “I don’t want to think about it too much right obviously, because I’m trying to stay in the zone, but yeah definitely this event holds an extra special place in my heart because of her.”
Canada will be watching her closely as that final is set to go tomorrow at 2:30 pm ET/11:3o AM PT.