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Jill Horstead When Greg McIntosh I wanted my daughters to try the sports kaleidoscope. Brooke When summer I grew up in Toronto and did horseback riding, gymnastics and even downhill skiing.
By the age of seven, Summer narrowed it down to figure skating and swimming, having an epiphany after falling during a program at a skating competition.
she still won. It puzzled her. Her parents explained how judgment sports, where flawed performance can be prevalent, differed from racing against time.
“She stopped skating the next day,” said Greg.
Summer McIntosh chose swimming because she wanted to make money.
Over the last three years, her coach died suddenly and her father was diagnosed with a treatable cancer in its early stages. She made her Olympic debut at the age of 14 in her Tokyo and won her two gold medals at the World Championships last June, making her one of the faces of the sport.
“Swimming has always been my favorite because it’s so simple,” she said. “You run the fastest and you win.”
After all, McIntosh entered the family business. Horstead swam at his 1984 Olympics, placing ninth overall in the consolation final of the 200 m butterfly.
Thirty years later, they watched it together on an old family computer.
“I remember being amazed at how much my swimming had progressed since then,” McIntosh said.
“I remember her giggling at our bathing suits,” Horstead said.
In fact, McIntosh never finished his first swimming lesson. By level 7 of the 10-level program, it was suggested that she accelerate to a more competitive group, “because she had such a natural feel for water.”
Mackintosh turned one year old the next day Michael Phelps Eight-time gold medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she says she took swimming seriously by age 12.
In a scene reminiscent of Phelps, McIntosh’s coach pulled away from Horstead as she began to break national age-group records.
“I’m not going to talk to Summer much,” recalled Horstead. Kevin Thorburn told her “What you don’t want is a 12-year-old thinking he’s successful when he has more potential.”
In a separate interview, McIntosh’s parents said that Thorburn, who had coached her at the Etobicoke Swim Club in Ontario, was the first to predict the kind of big things McIntosh is currently achieving.
Like when Mackintosh turned 13 in August 2019. Thorburn sat McIntosh down and said he could swim the 1500m freestyle fast enough to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Games. This makes McIntosh the youngest Canadian Olympian in any sport in her 44 years. They changed their training from all her four strokes to focus on grueling distance freestyles.
McIntosh was given an extra year to qualify due to COVID-19 and ended up qualifying in three individual events and one relay.
Thorburn wasn’t there to see it. He died in April 2020 at the age of 63.
“His passing was a real shock and devastating for Summer,” Gregg said.
In January 2021, Greg was diagnosed with throat cancer and has recovered. Horstead remembers that it was probably the only day McIntosh missed swimming practice.
The family decided to live in a separate apartment from Jill, Brooke, an elite-level figure skater at the time, and Summer, who was training for the Olympic trials.
“She was using swimming as a positive thing in her life at that point, and it was really a blessing,” Horstead said.
On June 20, 2021, Horstead took McIntosh down in the Olympic Trials 200m freestyle final at the Pan Am Sports Center in Toronto. COVID restrictions meant no crowds.
The CBC was offering swimmers’ families the opportunity to participate in video interviews with the winners. Horstead had to watch the race in the creek from the parking lot while waiting to take his daughter home. Greg, who is dealing with the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy, takes a shower for the first time in three days and calls just in case.
McIntosh won to qualify for the Olympics, spoke with Greg online, and wished him a happy Father’s Day on national television.
A month later, McIntosh went outside the United States and Canada to swim for the first time. She was in Tokyo for the Olympics. Sportsnet reported that McIntosh told the rest of the Canadian swimmers at a team-building exercise before the Olympics that her wish for her superpower was to “never get old.”
In her first Olympic race, she broke the Canadian record in the 400m free heat and lowered it again in the final to finish fourth. was an individual Olympic finish.
“I didn’t really have any expectations,” she said. ”
The rise continued with her World Championship debut in Budapest last June. She was 3.03 seconds faster than the Olympics in the 400m freestyle and won silver behind Ledecky.
She then won her mother’s event, the 200m fly, becoming the youngest individual world champion since 2011. “I think I’m in a bit of a shock right now,” she said in an interview on the pool deck moments later. Months later she said it was the highlight of her career. Unlike Ordeal and Tokyo, her parents were there to see it.
“She was calm and calm about everything,” Greg said. “She argued very well that she didn’t want to get too high because she still had races left.”
On the final day of the eight-day competition, she won the 400m individual medley crowned as the world’s best all-around swimmer.
The family then traveled to Birmingham, England for the Commonwealth Games. McIntosh swept the 200m and 400m medleys with new world junior records and a total of six podium finishes. She flew home to her home and decompressed with her 11 friends at a lakeside cottage in Ontario.
The medal rests in a chair-like box in the family’s basement in Toronto. McIntosh is currently the 3rd fastest woman ever in the 400m IM, and she is the 4th fastest woman in the 400m free. For Mackintosh, her time seems to be of little importance. Ledecky famously coded (and met them) her goal times on her buoy pulls before her games in Rio.
“Everything depends on the person,” said McIntosh, who is responsible for the mid-race split. “If you have the time and you don’t know how to get there, it becomes difficult to determine what you want to do.”
At the time of our interview in late November, McIntosh had little idea of his Olympic schedule, as he was able to swim the finals of the 200m butterfly and 4x200m freestyle relay in the same session (Gold).
She doesn’t have a favorite event. “It’s like asking her parents who is their favorite child,” she said.
From the outside, the most anticipated race is opening night. In the 400m free, she could face Ledecky and Australia’s two past Olympic champions. Ariane Titmus, the two fastest women in history. Two years later, it’s already being compared to the ‘race of the century’, the men’s 200m free at her 2004 Olympics in which Australian legend Phelps took part. Ian Thorpe When Grant Hackett and Dutch star peter van den hogen band (Soap won).
“She wants to be able to reach her full potential, which is to compete with the best,” said Gregg.
With that in mind, McIntosh moved last year from Toronto to Sarasota, Florida (a three-hour drive south of Gainesville’s Ledecky). She previously had her block training in Ontario when her COVID got worse. The Sarasota Sharks have many swimmers close to McIntosh’s age who share her events, Horstead said.
Horstead and McIntosh rent a house less than a mile from an outdoor pool. McIntosh needs a driver for her 5am practice because her learner’s permit doesn’t legally allow her to get behind the wheel before sunrise. “I got up at 4:10 a.m. and drove her to the pool for her minute and a half,” laughed Horstead.
McIntosh refuels with Banana Walnut Loaf Cakes from Publix, takes virtual school (which he’ll be graduating next year), and scans TikTok for home decor and interior design inspiration.
She confirmed that she will be in Ontario in late October. She sat at an ice rink in Mississauga watching her older sister Brooke practice for the biggest international figure skating competition of her young senior career. The next day, Brooke and her pair partner finished fourth as the second-youngest team in an eight-team field at Skate Canada.
McIntosh is in the midst of a rigorous training session, so we’ll be watching Brook live stream from Florida this week at the Canadian Championships. Those close to her admire her work ethic. Penny OlexiakCo-winner of the 100m freestyle at the 2016 Olympics, called her “full speed and no brakes.”
It’s been that way for years. McIntosh said another sport he dabbled with in elementary school was running. She ran the 400m because she said it was the furthest distance for a child that age.
“I wasn’t the best runner,” she said. I will be a runner ”
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