Summer McIntosh chose swimming And became Canada’s big splash
Jill Horstead and Greg McIntosh They wanted their daughters to experience a wide range of sports. Brooke And Summer Horseback riding, gymnastics and even downhill skiing were all part of my childhood in Toronto.
Summer was seven years old when she narrowed the focus to figure skating, swimming and experienced an epiphany after falling in her skating competition program.
Yet, she won. It was a puzzle to her. Her parents explained that judging sports where mistakes can be overcome was different than racing against the clock.
“She stopped skating the next day,” Greg said.
Summer McIntosh chose to swim because she wanted it to be a career.
She lost her coach suddenly in 2012, and her father was diagnosed early with cancer. At 14 years old, she made her Olympic debut in Tokyo. She then won two gold medals at last June’s world championships to be a prominent face of the sport.
“Swimming was always my favorite because it’s very simple,” she said. “You go the fastest time, and you win.”
McIntosh eventually joined the family business. Horstead won ninth place overall in the 200m butterfly at the 1984 Olympics.
It was three decades later that they watched it together on an older family computer.
“I remember being amazed about how far swimming’s progressed since then,” McIntosh said.
“I remember her giggling at our swimsuits,” Horstead said.
McIntosh never completed her first learn to swim lesson. By level seven of a 10-level program, it was suggested she be accelerated into a more competitive group “because she had a very natural feel for the water,” Horstead said.
McIntosh turned 1 on the day after. Michael Phelps She won her eighth gold medal at 2008 Beijing Olympics.
A scene reminiscent of Phelps, McIntosh’s coach pulled Horstead aside as she began breaking national age group records.
“We’re not really going to talk about them with Summer,” Horstead remembered Kevin Thorburn You should tell her. “Because what you don’t want is a 12-year-old thinking they’ve made it when she has a lot more potential to go.”
In separate interviews, McIntosh’s parents said that it was Thorburn, then coaching her at Etobicoke Swim Club in Ontario, who first predicted the kinds of big things that McIntosh is now achieving.
McIntosh was 13 years old on August 2019, just like this. Thorburn told McIntosh that she could swim the 1500m freestyle in a time fast enough to qualify her for 2020 Tokyo Games. She would be the youngest Canadian Olympian in any of the 44-year-old sports. They changed their training and now focus on the long distance freestyle.
McIntosh was allowed an extra year for COVID-19 and ended up qualifying in three individual events as well as a relay.
Thorburn was not present to witness the event. He was 63 years old when he died in April 2020.
“His passing was an absolute shock and was devastating to Summer,” Greg said.
Greg was diagnosed in January 2021 with throat cancer. He has now fully recovered. McIntosh was probably the last time Horstead missed a swim practice that day, according to Horstead.
Brooke was an elite-level figure skater and Brooke was training for the Olympic Trials. Summer was also living in separate apartments to minimize the risk of getting COVID.
“She just used swimming as a positive thing in her life at that point, and it was truly a blessing,” Horstead said.
McIntosh was dropped off by Horstead at the Toronto Pan Am Sport Centre on June 20, 2021 for the Olympic Trials 200m Freestyle final. COVID restrictions meant no spectators.
CBC had offered the swimmers’ families the opportunity to video in to be part of interviews with winners. Horstead watched the race from her car while she waited to take her daughter home. Greg, still suffering from side effects of chemotherapy and radiation, was finally able to get clean and dialed into his cell phone.
McIntosh won the Olympic spot. spoke virtually with Greg, wishing him a Happy Father’s Day on national TV.
McIntosh was back in the USA and Canada one month later to swim for the first-time. It was Tokyo that McIntosh went to for the Olympics. Sportsnet reported that, before the Games, McIntosh told the rest of the Canadian swimmers in a team-building exercise that her wish for a super power “would be to never age.”
She broke the Canadian record in 400m free heats and then set a new Canadian record in the final, to finish fourth. According to Olympedia.org, it was the most successful individual Olympic finish by a swimmer this young in 25 years.
“I didn’t really have any expectations,” she said. “For me to even make the Olympic team was, like, a really big deal for me and one of my main goals.”
At her world championships debut in Budapest last June, the ascent continued. To earn silver behind Ledecky, she ran 3.03 seconds faster in the 400m free.
She followed that by winning her mom’s event, the 200m fly, to become the youngest individual world champion since 2011. The pool was not filled with celebrations. “I think I’m a little bit in shock right now,” she said moments later in a pool-deck interview. Months later, she said it’s the highlight of her career. Her parents were there to witness it, unlike trials and Tokyo.
“She was calm and collected about the whole thing,” Greg said. “She made a very good point that she had more races to go, so she didn’t want to get too high.”
On the last day of the eight-day meet, she won the 400m individual medley, which crowns the world’s best all-around swimmer.
After the Commonwealth Games, McIntosh’s family traveled to Birmingham, England. McIntosh won both the 200m/400m medleys and set six world junior records. With 11 friends, she flew home and settled down at her cottage on an Ontario lake.
They are kept in a box that looks a lot like a chair in the Toronto family basement. McIntosh is the third-fastest woman ever in the 400m IM. She also holds the fourth-fastest time in the 400m IM. McIntosh seems to be less focused on the times than Ledecky who famously set goal times in code on a pull buoy prior to Rio Games.
“Everything’s different for everyone,” said McIntosh, who puts the onus on intermediate splits within races. “If you have a time and you don’t know how to get to that, it’s harder to gauge what you want to do.”
McIntosh did not give much thought to the Olympic schedule until late November. McIntosh could swim finals in the 200m butterfly and 4x200m relay in the same session (a double Phelps did it in 2008, 2012, 2016 and winning seven golds).
She doesn’t have a favorite event. “It’s like asking a parent who’s their favorite child,” she said.
The 400m free is the most anticipated race from the outside. It could be against the two Olympic champions, Ledecky or Australian. Ariarne TitmusThe two fastest women in history. Two years out, it has already been compared to the “Race of the Century,” the 2004 Olympic men’s 200m free that included Phelps, Australian legends Ian Thorpe And Grant Hackett Dutch star Pieter van den Hoogenband (Won by Thorpe).
“She wants to be to live up to what she thinks is her full potential, which is compete with the best,” Greg said.
McIntosh moved last year from Toronto, Canada to Sarasota (a three-hour drive south Ledecky in Gainesville), where her training block was when COVID became a problem in Ontario. The Sarasota Sharks have more swimmers closer to McIntosh’s age who share her events, said Horstead.
McIntosh, Horstead and McIntosh rented a home less that a mile from the pool. McIntosh needs a driver for 5 a.m. practices since her learner’s permit does not allow her to legally get behind the wheel before sunrise. “I get up at 4:10am to drive her a minute and a half to the pool,” Horstead laughed.
McIntosh eats a banana walnut loaf cake from Publix and does virtual school (settled to graduate next year). He also scans TikTok looking for interior design ideas and home decor.
She made it a point to visit Ontario in the latter part of October. Brooke was competing in the most prestigious international figure skating event of her senior career. Brooke watched as she sat at Mississauga’s ice rink. McIntosh defeated Ledecky the next day at a World Cup meeting in Toronto. The day after that, Brooke and her pairs’ partner finished fourth as the second-youngest team in an eight-team field at Skate Canada.
McIntosh is in the middle of heavy training, so she will watch Brooke compete at this week’s Canadian Championships via live stream from Florida. Her work ethic is praised by those who are close to her. Penny Oleksiak, the co-2016 Olympic 100m freestyle champion, has labeled her “all gas and no brakes.”
It’s been that way for years. McIntosh stated that running was another activity she did in elementary school. McIntosh ran the 400m as it was the longest distance that kids could run at her age.
“I wasn’t the best runner,” she said, “but if I wasn’t a swimmer. I’d be a runner.”
OlympicTalk is available Apple News. Favorite us
More Olympics
Katie Ledecky opens 2023 with a win, and a question Alpine skiing TV, live stream schedule for 2022-23 World Cup season U.S. Olympic diving trials in 2024 to be in Knoxville
Summer McIntosh chose swimming and became Canada’s big splash Original version: NBCSports.com