Summer Shines on Home Soil
Summer McIntosh was the talk of the town over the weekend in her hometown of Toronto, as she claimed 4 medals and 2 Junior World Records at the FINA World Cup. To rise to the top and prove yourself just once is hard enough for most athletes, but to do it on repeat separates the elite from the rest.
Summer finished 4th on the female athlete rankings in Toronto, behind fellow Canadian Margaret MacNeil and America’s Beata Nelson and Katie Ledecky. The opening event is always a showstopper, and the Women’s 400m Freestyle in Toronto was no different. Ariarne Titmus’s Short Course World Record was surprisingly broken just days prior to the 2nd World Cup leg by Chinese swimmer Li Bingjie. Her 3:51.30 was a shock throughout the swimming world, as most were gearing up for the McIntosh-Ledecky battle at the looming World Cup. Although the pair didn’t break the new mark set by Bingjie, they both dipped under Titmus’s previous record, with Summer touching out Katie Ledecky in a nail-biter. Her time of 3:52.80 secured yet another Junior World Record as well as a World Cup and Americas Record.
The 400m IM has arguably been Summer’s pet event this year. Gold medalist in the event at the World Championships and Commonwealth Games earlier this year, Summer blitzed the field by a colossal 7-seconds at this weekend's World Cup. 4:21.49 saw her edge the 4th fastest time in history, behind medley legends Mireia Belmonte, Katinka Hosszu and Julia Smit, setting a new Junior World Record.
The teenager showed her versatility on the final night of racing with the grueling double of the 200m IM and 200m Backstroke. Summer backed up tremendously to win bronze in both. In the medley Summer (2:06.57) was narrowly behind Beata Nelson (2:05.08) and Sydney Pickrem (2:05.23), and in the backstroke she has shown that she is a potential future threat, touching in 2:02.85 behind Beata Nelson (2:00.50) and Kylie Masse (2:02.21).
Our Aussie F-Teamer Holly Barratt again showed that she is a consistent performer on the world circuit, as she backed up from the Berlin leg to compete in Canada over the weekend. Making finals in both the 50m Butterfly and 50m Freestyle, Barratt was just off the podium in both to place 4th and 6th respectively.
Summer still had time to drop in to the Team Aquatic Supplies store at the Toronto Pan Am Aquatic Centre to see the new Funkita collection looking bright and brilliant on the racks. Summer will be back in December for a meet-and-greet for the Ontario International so stay tuned for further details.
With Leg 3 of the FINA World Cup set for Indianapolis this weekend, stay tuned to see more of our athletes in action.