McIntosh captures first Olympic medal in highly anticipated women’s 400m freestyle race

For a 17-year-old swimmer, Summer McIntosh has an impressive resume.

Canadian records. World records. World championships. An Olympic Games appearance. But an Olympic medal had eluded her – until Saturday night in Paris.

“It’s definitely pretty surreal,” said McIntosh shortly after winning a silver medal in the women’s 400m freestyle. “Going into tonight I really just wanted to put my best foot forward and race as hard as I could. Overall I’m pretty happy with the result.”

McIntosh has become one of Canada’s most decorated swimmers over the past few years, winning a plethora of medals at World Aquatics Championships and the Commonwealth Games. Now she can add an Olympic medal to her collection – with a chance to win more before leaving Paris.

READ: Summer McIntosh wins silver for Canada’s first medal of Paris 2024

The women’s 400m freestyle race was one of the most anticipated events of these Games with McIntosh going up against Australian Ariarne Titmus – the current world record holder – and American Katie Ledecky – the Olympic record holder. Titmus and McIntosh sat first and second, respectively, for the entirety of the race and built up a healthy lead over third place Ledecky.

Titmus won gold with a time of 3:57.49, McIntosh took silver at 3:58.37 and Ledecky grabbed bronze with a 4:00.86 race.

“Any time I get to race either of those girls it’s an amazing opportunity and I learn so much,” said McIntosh. “They push me to be better and make me put my best foot forward, so it was definitely a good race.”

Ledecky, who is 10 years older than McIntosh and a legend in the sport, knew the race wouldn’t be easy.

“We knew it was going to be a great race going in, so many great competitors in the field,” the American said. “I knew it’d be tough and everyone in that field put up a great race – Ariarne, Summer swam really, really well. I haven’t looked at how the whole race broke down, I can only see it from my lane, but kudos on some great races.”

One of McIntosh’s teammates in Paris, Canadian swimming great Penny Oleksiak, was impressed with what she saw in the race.

“You can’t say anything other than it was incredible,” said Oleksiak. “[McIntosh] went out and killed it.

“Just watching her through the week, and how she carries herself and how she’s been preparing for this, it was everything we were expecting it would be.”

In her morning heat on Saturday, McIntosh led early in the race but was caught by New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather. McIntosh had a strong final lap and finished just a tenth of a second behind Fairweather with a time of 4:02.65. The time placed the Canadian fourth overall heading into the final.

Speaking with CBC after the heat, McIntosh said she only used enough energy to secure a spot in the final and used the race as preparation for the evening.

It’s not the first time McIntosh has swam the 400m freestyle at an Olympic Games. As the youngest athlete on Team Canada at Tokyo 2020, the then-14-year-old finished just shy of the podium, placing fourth. McIntosh competed in three individual races and a relay in Tokyo but didn’t medal in any event. One major difference in Paris? There’s a building full of spectators watching on compared to the pandemic-impacted Games from three years ago, something McIntosh is trying to use to her advantage.

READ: Summer McIntosh ready to set the stage for Team Canada success in the Paris 2024 swimming pool

“An Olympics is always pretty nerve-racking and there’s a lot of anticipation going into each race, so (I’m) kind of learning how to deal with that and also trying to feed off the crowd,” noted McIntosh.

Since Tokyo, McIntosh has become one of the top long course freestyle swimmers in the world. At the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, McIntosh captured silver in the 400m freestyle and followed that up with another silver in the same event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

In 2023, McIntosh broke the world records in both the women’s 400m freestyle and women’s 400m individual medley at the Canadian Trials. 16-years-old at the time, McIntosh became the first swimmer, male or female, to ever own the long course world records in both of those events. Titmus re-took the 400m freestyle record later in the year.

Saturday’s silver medal could be just the beginning for McIntosh at these Games. She’s set to swim in three other individual events in Paris – the 400m individual medley, 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley. She’ll also likely be a relay swimmer for Team Canada, like she was on Saturday just 30 minutes after winning her silver medal. McIntosh and the Canadians finished fourth in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay.