Summer McIntosh posts world-leading time in 200m butterfly at Canadian swim trials

Summer McIntosh is excited for a run to the Paris Olympics that differs from her last some three years ago.

The 17-year-old emerged victorious once again, winning the women's 200-metre butterfly at the Olympic and Paralympic Swimming Trials on Saturday night in Toronto. McIntosh finished with a world-leading time of two minutes 4.33 seconds to go under the Olympic qualifying time of 2:08.43.

It's the fourth event in which the Toronto native has gone under qualifying time at the trials. She's scheduled to compete in the 200 individual medley event on Sunday's final day of competition.

She was dominant in her 400-metre freestyle victory on Monday and followed it up the next night with a comfortable win in the 200 free. She then broke her own world record in the 400 individual medley on Thursday.

"It's so exciting, my last Olympics I just did freestyle events," McIntosh said. "So being able to come back to doing my favourite events which is more IM [and] fly-based, along with every style still, is really fun just to kind of see how to balance all of it together."

McIntosh's Olympic debut in Tokyo as a 14-year-old attracted the eyes of many and she has only become a bigger star since then with eight world championship medals (four gold, one silver, three bronze) between 2022 and 2023.

McIntosh won gold in both the 200 butterfly and 400 IM at the 2023 world aquatics championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

External pressure or expectations are of no issue to her, though.

"I mean, I think I'm getting used to it at this point," McIntosh said. "I don't really think of others' expectations because it's really irrelevant to what I do in training and racing and things like that.

"I don't really hear any of the outside noise when I'm at a pool like this, all I hear is the support and the screaming from the stands so that's what I try to focus on."

Competing in as many events as she does, however, is still something she's working on perfecting in multiple ways, including recovery.

"Being a multi-event swimmer and trying to balance all of it definitely takes a lot of practice and I haven't quite mastered it yet, but the more meets that I do more main events in, in all different kinds of orders and situations is where I learn the most."

Mabel Zavaros of Burlington, Ont., finished second to McIntosh in 2:11.85.

There were two Canadian records set in the men's events with a pair of Olympic qualifications.