PARIS – The questions that face Summer McIntosh at these Olympics are not about how she plans to navigate the 50 metres from wall-to-wall in an Olympic swimming pool. They are about the challenges that come with her intense schedule: Paris will be an action-packed, nine-day meet that could see the Toronto teenager race upwards of 15 times.
Add the weight of expectations that McIntosh and her camp are well aware comes with her status as a world champion and the journey gets notably more complex.
There are may potential moving parts throughout what promises to be an electrifying competition at these Games with heats, finals and relays necessitating a strategic emphasis on maximum rest and recovery to optimize performance. McIntosh, with her powerful strokes and elite competitiveness is the engine, of course. But behind her, the support is deep.
“Since it’s just a long, nine-day swim meet, it’s important to stay in the moment each race [and] try to execute as well as possible,” McIntosh said not long after arriving in France. “Mental [recovery] almost tops physical in some ways. It’s super, super important because the body does what the mind believes for sure.”
McIntosh’s mind — and the collective braintrust of Swimming Canada and her team — believe she has the possibility of unleashing one of the greatest Olympic efforts in the country’s history. To maximize that potential, the 17-year-old, two-time world champion will be carefully managed from the moment she hits the water here on Saturday morning until her final race, which could be eight days later.
It will be a dizzying competitive itinerary at the spectacular La Defense Arena, where race after gruelling race, day after demanding day, McIntosh will be in the spotlight both here and at home. Competing in four individual events and as many as three relays, it’s an exhausting — and ambitious — roadmap that could take her to lasting Olympic glory.
How does she do it?
“I think it’s her approach – her consistency is second to none,” McIntosh’s coach, Brent Arckey said in an interview. “It’s very rare for her to have just a really bad day. Every day is like an ‘A’ and then we have some ‘A-plus’ days sprinkled in there. And her worst days are better than anybody I’ve seen.
“The times that she goes in practice are at a really high level. Her consistency of what she does outside of the pool is at a really high level and the fact that she’s a 17-year-old makes it even more impressive.”
Her first medal could come on Saturday’s opening day of competition when McIntosh faces American star Katie Ledecky and Aussie phenom Ariarne Titmus in a 400-metre freestyle clash. Each of the three swimmers have been world record holders in the event.
There will be a preliminary race in the morning, with the final at night. And a mere 42 minutes after the latter — with a possible podium trip in between — McIntosh hopes to be part of the Canadian 4×100 metre freestyle relay team that ideally will be racing for another medal.
Take a breath here, because she will just be getting started.
Skip ahead two days and it’s her big event — prelims and final of the 400-metre medley, a race she has won twice in the world championships and holds the world record. And on it goes. McIntosh will also race in the 200-metre medley and 200-metre butterfly, an individual menu she settled on for more than a year. The idea was to reach peak performance in each of the four events selected and to tailor her daily training accordingly.
“It’s been 50 weeks, a year’s worth of preparation for this, but in a way it’s been a whole lifetime for her,” Arckey said. “Certainly there’s an emphasis for this entire year of setting up weeks that replicate the workload that could be coming in Paris.
“Physically we’ve talked about what this could look like and feel like, how it’s going to be mentally. We don’t talk too much about the expectations, we talk about the preparation and then deal with whatever gets thrown at us.”
Swimming Canada was a key support in the planning — from consulting with Arckey and McIntosh over the sharpest of details in the schedule, to managing her time, including carefully monitored media exposure.
“We talked to her coach and her parents,” said Swimming Canada’s high performance director and national coach, John Atkinson. “Remember we have a young lady who is doing things most 17-year-olds don’t do. At some point when you are going into nine days of high-intensity [competition], of pressure and expectations and most of that from yourself, it’s important to manage that as best you can as you move forward so that you can sustain a high level of focus for nine days.”
There will be various mechanisms to help McIntosh through that, of course. From nutrition, to post-race massage and treatment plus focus on a strong afternoon nap to recover from a morning prelim and recharge for a potential medal chase at night.
One of the first crossroads will arrive on the opening day when Atkinson and his staff will decide if McIntosh will be part of the relay and event she helped the team swim to a bronze medal finish at the 2023 world championship in Fukuoka, Japan. We wouldn’t bet against it.
“She’s got it in her plans, but everything will be decided [by the coaches] after the prelims,” Atkinson said.
There are others to handle the details and decisions, however, all with designs to get the best performances out of one of the best swimmers Canadians have seen. Similarly, McIntosh is keeping her own expectations personal, and she is willing to trust her sublime ability and elite training.
“Just trying to stay in the moment and trying to execute as best as possible which will be really what a successful meet would be,” McIntosh said when asked what would define Paris success would look like to her. “When it comes to an Olympic Games it’s not so much bout the times, it’s more about your placement and position. Obviously that’s always the goal, that’s the real basis of the sport.”