PARIS – What did you do in the best 45 minutes of a Saturday night in your life?
We’re betting it would be tough to top what Canada’s emerging swimming superstar Summer McIntosh unleashed at the La Defense Arena in a rousing start to the 2024 Olympic Games.
The 17-year-old Toronto teen made her Paris debut a smashing one, capturing a silver medal in her first event here with a smashing performance to earn the country’s first medal of the Games.
While she was never going to catch defending gold medal champ Ariarne Titmus of Australia, McIntosh was well ahead of superstar American Katie Ledecky.
The silver medal was a huge start to a Games in which McIntosh is expected to win multiple medals and showed that her training is on point. Less than an hour after that effort, she was scheduled to race in the 4×100 metre freestyle relay, joining her predecessor to Canadian swimming greatness, Penny Oleksiak.
Despite a strong leg from McIntosh, the Canadian women couldn’t reach the podium, settling for fourth in a race won by the Australians, where the gold-medal winners set an Olympic record.
But what a wild stretch it was, 50 minutes of high-stakes action in front of an electric, sold-out crowd at the swimming venue. It was dizzying, really.
The whirlwind schedule of focus and resolve for the young Canadian began when she stood near the starting block of Lane 6 at 8:56 p.m. and with a deep sigh and shrug of her shoulders climbed the perch to begin.
She gamely chased Titmus throughout the race but the Aussie held the lead after 50 metres. The reigning champ never relinquished that spot but by 9 p.m., Paris time, the race was over and a medal gallantly secured.
Then things got wonderfully crazy for the young Canadian. At 9:28 pm, she strode onto the pool deck alongside Titmus and Ledecky. At 9:30 pm, the medal was around her shoulders, accompanied by a smile, and a wave to the crowd. At 9:33 pm, a hug with her fellow medallists, and then two minutes later it was off to the ready room to prepare for the relay.
A mere six minutes later she was back at the starting block with teammates Taylor Ruck, Maggie Mac Neil and Penny Oleksiak for the 4 x 100 relay final. By 9:50 pm, it was all done, a leave-it-all-in-the-pool night for Canada’s next Olympic star.
So many expectations were placed on McIntosh, the composed and talented athlete, whose mother Jill swam for Canada in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
Canadian officials and coaches were quietly confident that McIntosh arrived here in the French capital in peak form, the product of a measured and focussed year of training in Sarasota, Fla. with her coach, Brent Arckey. Despite finishing second in her morning heat to qualify for the final, it was clear she left more in the tank for this one, a clear sign that she’s emerging as a savvy competitor.
“She’s very mature for her age, very driven and very focused on what she is doing,” said John Atkinson, Swimming Canada’s high performance director and national coach. “But even with the best of us, we have our limits and some of us don’t know what the limits are until we’ve reached them.”
She certainly stamped herself among the elite in her sport on Saturday given the track records of both Titmus and Ledecky. Her time of 3:58.37 wasn’t going to upend Titmus, who touched the wall first in 3:57.49, but was well ahead of Ledecky at 4:00.86.
For McIntosh, a long career likely awaits, but on Saturday she showed that there’s substance to all the predictions. It was a rousing rebound from a fourth-place finish in the same event at last year’s world championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
With so much more to come — including her signature event, the 400-metre medley, in which she holds the world record — it was a confidence-building start to the nine-day meet.
“She’s really excited for the challenge and I think that’s something to be admired at a young age,” veteran Canadian swimmer Sydney Pickrem said. “She’d rather swim a three-way battle for first rather than be ahead of the game. She really does thrive in the challenge. I admire her for that and am excited to see what she can do.”