‘Loss for words’: Toronto’s Summer McIntosh reflects on setting her third world record in five days

The 18-year-old Canadian Olympian tells CTV News that the feeling is ‘surreal’ and she’s ‘training hard every single day.’

Canadian Olympic champion and Toronto’s own Summer McIntosh has once again broken her own world record — marking history three times in just five days.

On Wednesday night, at the Bell Canadian Swimming Trials in Victoria, B.C., the 18-year-old swam the 400-metre individual medley in a time of 4:23.65, eclipsing her previous world-best time of 4:24.38 set just last year at the previous Olympic trials.

It marks the third time this week McIntosh has rewritten the history books and the fifth time she’s reset a national record. She’ll now shift her focus to the world championships in Singapore coming next month.

“I think I’m at a loss for words. I don’t think it’s fully sunken in yet,” McIntosh told CTV News Channel Thursday night. “I just try to really focus in on each race individually and not kind of think about what I was doing too much.”

McIntosh opened the week with a world record in the 400m freestyle on Saturday, followed by another in the 200m individual medley on Monday.

She also broke her own Canadian record in the 800m freestyle on Sunday, clocking in at 8:05.07 — nearly five seconds faster than her previous best — and again in the 200m butterfly on Tuesday, swimming 2:02.26, the second-fastest time ever recorded in the event.

“Being able to see all my training come into fruition is so validating, and it really keeps me going and pushing forward for sure,” she said.

The world championships in Singapore are set to begin July 27. It will be her first major international competition since her breakout performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where she won three gold medals and one silver — becoming the first Canadian to win three Olympic golds at a single Games.

“I’m forever chasing that feeling of adrenaline and pure bliss and happiness,” McIntosh said. “It definitely never gets old. The more I set, the more I want to break.”

McIntosh will also soon begin a new chapter in her training. Her agent confirmed last month that she’ll be working with Bob Bowman — the former coach of 23-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Phelps — later this summer. She previously trained in Florida under Brent Arckey with the Sarasota Sharks.

“After the Olympics, I took a few weeks off, which was really nice,” McIntosh said. “Coming into the season I had really big goals, bigger than I did even for the Olympics. So it was all business once I got back to the pool.”

“Lots of mental preparation has gone into this,” she added. “But I think trials is a little bit less pressure, just because it’s a home meet. I can always feed off the energy of the crowd.”

And for her trip to Singapore?

“I’m super excited to go.”

With files from The Canadian Press...