In a single week in Singapore, Summer McIntosh moved past every Canadian swimmer who had ever stood on a World Championship podium. Her gold medal in the 400m individual medley on the final night delivered career World medal number 13, eight of them gold — a Canadian record across all World Aquatics disciplines.
Four golds, one last record to break
The 18-year-old from Toronto touched the wall in 4:25.78, a championship record that left Australia’s Jenna Forrester and Japan’s Mio Narita sharing silver more than seven seconds behind. She had entered the week chasing five gold medals. The bronze in the 800m free kept her just short of Michael Phelps’ mark of five, but the 400m IM win cemented something larger.
The butterfly that finished second-fastest ever
Two nights earlier, McIntosh had won the 200m butterfly in a meet-record 2:01.99, the fastest swim ever in a textile suit and second only to Liu Zige’s super-suit world record from 2009. Regan Smith of the United States took silver a full three seconds behind. It was her third straight world title in the event, a first for any Canadian in a single discipline.
Across the meet, she also claimed her first-ever world golds in the 400m freestyle and the 200m individual medley. She never trailed in the 200m IM final, splitting 26.71 on the opening butterfly leg and winning by nearly two seconds.
A place beside Ledecky and Sjöström
McIntosh became only the second woman in history to win four individual golds at a single long-course World Championships, matching Katie Ledecky’s 2015 tally. Her five total medals in Singapore put her alongside Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström as one of just two women to reach that figure at a single edition of the meet.
With the 400m IM gold, she broke clear of the 10-medal mark shared by Kylie Masse and Jennifer Abel. She was named the Best Female Athlete of the championships. “I broke my kind of curse of three — everything comes in threes but now everything comes in fours,” she told CBC News afterwards.
Three Olympic golds in Paris. Four world titles in one week. The record book now belongs, quietly but unmistakably, to a teenager from Toronto.