To hear her tell the story, Canadian swim sensation Summer McIntosh is like any other teenager looking to make the most of an all-too-short summer.
“I’m pretty much the most, like, basic 16-year-old girl you can think of,” McIntosh told reporters via video conference on Thursday night from Tokyo. “I’ll just hang out with my friends. We will go to the movies, or I’ll go shopping. Or if I'm not in school, I’ll spend too many hours on TikTok per day, or I’ll take a nap.
“So, I’m pretty boring outside the pool."
On the pool deck and in the water, McIntosh is the opposite of boring. The Toronto product is arguably the biggest name on a deep and talented Canadian swim team set to compete at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
And that's saying something, given the star power of a group that includes Maggie Mac Neil, Kylie Masse and Joshua Liendo.
The swimming competition begins July 23 at what is an unofficial dress rehearsal for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Penny Oleksiak, Canada’s most decorated Olympian, is not swimming at the world championships in favour of rehabbing shoulder and knee injuries.
“I think not just me, but the whole team is really excited to see what the future holds,” McIntosh said. “I’m just mentally getting pumped and ready along with all my teammates, so it should be really fun.”
It will be hard for McIntosh to top her performance at national trials in the spring where she broke two world records and set five world junior records at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre.
In the 400-metre freestyle, McIntosh stopped the clock at three minutes, 56.08 seconds, shaving 0.32 seconds off the previous mark held by Australia’s Ariarne Titmus.
American Katie Ledecky, another former world record holder in the event, will also compete in Tokyo, with the 400m final scheduled for the first night of competition.
"I feel like Katie, Summer and I are quite even going in, to be honest,” Titmus told reporters in Melbourne last month. “But I feel like with the experience that Katie has had, and with what I have had, we have had more experience than Summer racing with the pressure. I feel like Summer hasn't really had that experience yet, racing on the international stage with the big pressure, so it'll be interesting to see how she goes.”
McIntosh sticks to generalities when asked about a probable showdown with Ledecky and Titmus.
“I think there’s a respect between not just the three of us, but all other swimmers that are on deck at world championships,” she said. “We all know what it takes to become one of the best in the world.”
McIntosh is the first swimmer in history to hold long-course world records in both the 400m freestyle and 400m individual medley. So, she clearly belongs in the conversation of the best in the world just two years after making her Olympic debut in Tokyo under strict COVID-19 restrictions.
At age 14, she finished fourth in the 400m Olympic freestyle final — a harbinger of things to come.
“On my flights here, I was definitely getting a little bit reminiscent on the 2021 Tokyo Olympics,” she said. “And hopefully this time, I’ll get to explore a bit more. For obvious reasons, I wasn’t able to last time.”
McIntosh’s schedule is packed at the world championships, with four individual events (the 400m freestyle and individual medley, the 200m freestyle and butterfly) and expected appearances in the relays.
When she’s not swimming or soaking up the Japanese culture, McIntosh expects to pull out her phone every now and then to retreat into the online world of the average 16 year old.
“Sometimes, it’s more of a getaway,” she said. “So usually, I’m on TikTok or Snapchat, just kind of connecting back with my friends at home.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 14, 2023.
Vicki Hall, The Canadian Press
