In Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh, the Olympic Games has a new superstar

Summer season McIntosh ripped off her hat and started celebrating, punching the air, pointing to her household and breaking into the smile that’s going to change into without end entwined with the Olympic Video games over the subsequent decade. As she did so, absorbing the second, she barely appeared to note that a few of her rivals within the 400m medley ultimate had been nonetheless ending the race.

It’s not onerous to picture the 17-year-old as the subsequent phenomenon of Olympic sport, a determine to rival Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps in recognition. She is already the current and way forward for swimming, and this dominant efficiency, profitable her first Olympic gold medal, was simply the beginning with three extra particular person occasions to return.

Her expertise has lengthy been the discuss of the swimming world. The one query left was whether or not McIntosh may produce the identical quick instances on the Olympic stage, the place the stress is highest, the place expectation comes from 15,000 screaming followers and 40 million Canadians watching on, an inescapable stress that seems in each press convention, in each interview.

To date she has leant into the clamour, signing profitable industrial offers with Pink Bull, Tag Heur and swimwear manufacturers. Her 134k Instagram following can have blown up by the top of those Video games, if not by the top of this text after her first gold. The eye has not fazed her to this point in her brief profession, and he or she embraced it right here.

It was clear from the roar on her entrance to La Protection Enviornment that the gang had come to coronate the brand new queen of the pool. McIntosh emerged laser centered, gazing her begin block, and went into her routine. She pinned her goggles to her face and splashed water over her physique. Then she stood beside her block, glugged in a few breaths and crouched into place.

She was within the lead by 25 metres of the primary stroke, the butterfly, and become the backstroke with a 1.35sec lead over American 18-year-old, Katie Grimes. That lead was 1.56sec once they began the breaststroke, and a few years in the past which may have been a possibility for her rivals. However McIntosh has turned her weak spot right into a energy, and he or she raced away from the sphere.

McIntosh has hardly been hiding. She is the world report holder and that is, remarkably, her second Olympics after she appeared in Tokyo aged 14 and set a nationwide report within the 400m freestyle. In the summertime of 2022 she established herself as not only a bundle of potential however among the best swimmers on the earth, nonetheless solely 15, with Commonwealth and World Championship gold medals in medley and butterfly.

She quickly moved from Canada to Florida to coach with famend coach Bret Arkey, and he structured her every day “grind”, as she calls it. As a substitute of specialising at an early stage as most swimmers are inclined to do, Arkey and McIntosh labored onerous on all 4 disciplines with specific consideration to her supposed weak spot, the breaststroke. That versatility saved coaching extra various and attention-grabbing.

Prodigious expertise requires a mix of nature and nurture and McIntosh’s mum, Jill Horstead, can take loads of credit score for each. Horstead was an Olympic swimmer in the identical occasions and gained a Commonwealth bronze medal at Edinburgh 1986. She too was thrust into high-calibre races at a younger age, and has now raised two athletes: older sister Brooke is a aggressive pair skater, and McIntosh hugged them each as quickly as she had the gold medal round her neck.

Horstead now spends most of her time in Florida supporting Summer season. “My mum is the very best and I believe she simply will get swimming on such a excessive degree in comparison with most different dad and mom,” McIntosh mentioned lately. “On a day-to-day foundation, she’s all the time cooking and cleansing and serving to me via coaching as a result of I’m all the time consuming, simply to get sufficient energy. She actually will get the day-to-day grind, and is all the time there to help me if I’ve a nasty race or a nasty observe. She simply will get it on such a subsequent degree.”

There’s nonetheless the 400m freestyle, 200m butterfly (during which she is a double world champion) and 200m particular person medley to return. There is likely to be three or 4 extra Video games to return too, if she wishes. Swimming has a brand new famous person in Summer season McIntosh, and her Olympic legacy has solely simply begun.