Better of the Greatest: Stacking Up Summer season McIntosh Performances From 2025
A run of world data at June’s Canadian Trials gave Summer season McIntosh quite a few choices to be thought of as the highest efficiency of the 12 months 2025. The flexibility of McIntosh is a trademark, and so is the dominance she has demonstrated over her competitors.
Listed here are the very best performances that McIntosh delivered this 12 months. There are seven efforts value mentioning, all from the Canadian Trials and World Championships. McIntosh was comparatively quiet in competitors for the primary a part of the 12 months as she prepped in France with coach Fred Vergnoux for her unbelievable summer season. Then, after transferring her coaching to the College of Texas and coach Bob Bowman, an sickness knocked her out of the World Cup circuit. McIntosh rebounded to swim effectively on the U.S. Open, however her most unbelievable marks got here inside a two-month span.
1. 400 Freestyle at Canadian Trials (3:54.18 WR)
This was the No. 1 efficiency by any feminine swimmer all 12 months as McIntosh beat the earlier world report of Ariarne Titmus by greater than a second. However it additionally arrange one other report run to happen 24 hours later, a report few had beforehand thought of to be inside attain.
2. 200 IM at Canadian Trials (2:05.70 WR)
Keep in mind that the 200 IM was removed from McIntosh’s most important occasion within the early levels of her worldwide profession. Whereas she received 400 IM world titles in 2022 and 2023, she eschewed racing within the 200-meter race because it conflicted with the 400 free. Getting into the Paris Olympics, McIntosh was solely a slight favourite within the occasion due to the presence of world champions Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh plus versatile Australian Kaylee McKeown. However her come-from-behind win within the Olympic ultimate propelled McIntosh to an analogous realm of dominance.
And at her Worlds choice meet, McIntosh put collectively a world report, beating the earlier mark by greater than 4 tenths. The world report had been 2:06.1 for 16 years, going again to the supersuit period of 2009. Ariana Kukors clocked 2:06.15 on the World Championships that 12 months, and Katinka Hosszu clipped that by three hundredths in 2015. It will take one other decade for McIntosh to get beneath that point.
The Canadian’s always-strong butterfly and her improved backstroke put her effectively beneath world report tempo, after which she survived the breaststroke leg, touching simply off Hosszu’s tempo on the 150-meter mark. A 29.95 homecoming break up sealed the deal as McIntosh grew to become the primary girl ever beneath 2:06 together with her time of two:05.70.
Picture Courtesy: Emily Cameron
3. 200 Butterfly at World Championships (2:01.99)
This was not a world report, however McIntosh got here painfully near a mark that has stood since 2009, the two:01.81 of Liu Zige that after appeared it will final for many years. A time of two:03.03 in her golden effort ultimately 12 months’s Paris Olympics gave the concept that McIntosh would possibly sooner or later method the usual, nevertheless it occurred even faster than anticipated.
In Singapore, as McIntosh opened up an enormous lead over American Regan Smith, she moved her approach beneath world-record tempo on the 150-meter mark. Possibly? Alas, it was to not be on this event, though her time was the second-fastest in historical past and the primary time anybody had been beneath 2:02 since 2009. McIntosh let the world know her emotions on arising quick; upon seeing the scoreboard, digital camera caught her mouthing a profanity. Subsequent 12 months, maybe.
4. 200 Butterfly at Canadian Trials (2:02.26)
This efficiency had been the second-fastest in historical past (and inside a half-second of the world report) earlier than Worlds. It was this swim that put McIntosh in vary of Liu’s time previous to Worlds. The 200 fly would find yourself as the one occasion the place McIntosh swam quicker on the international competitors than she did on the choice meet.
5. 800 Freestyle at Canadian Trials (8:05.07)
One month earlier, Katie Ledecky has damaged her personal world report within the 800 free. It had been 9 years since Ledecky had beforehand set the mark within the occasion, one had come near Ledecky’s dominance within the occasion throughout that span. Properly, besides McIntosh, who had overwhelmed Ledecky had an area meet in Florida within the spring of 2024. In early 2025, she went 8:09.86 to turn into the second girl ever beneath 8:10. Thus, the 800 free was penciled into her schedule for this summer season’s competitors.
She would swim the 16-lap occasion at Trials only one night time after her gorgeous world mark within the 400 free, and everybody knew she was gunning for the highest time within the 800-meter race. Certainly, McIntosh would swim beneath world-record tempo for almost all of the occasion together with her home competitors out of the image and a partisan crowd roaring. Inside a tenth of Ledecky’s break up coming into the ultimate size, McIntosh couldn’t maintain tempo and ended up ending in 8:05.07, slightly below a second off the mark. In her fifth-best occasion, McIntosh confirmed she was able to difficult the best swimmer in historical past.
6. 400 IM at Canadian Trials (4:23.65)
A world report within the sixth spot? For this Canadian star and nobody else. This was probably the most neglected of her swims from the choice meet as a result of she already owned this world report, having gone 4:24.38 on the choice contest a 12 months earlier. This one was most notable for giving McIntosh an unbelievable third particular person world report on the identical meet. With this world report, she confirmed vital enchancment on the backstroke leg, a 1:06.13 break up a full second faster than she went in her earlier report.
7. 400 IM at World Championships (4:25.78)
This one was not a world report and even shut, though McIntosh did decrease her personal championship report. However this 400 IM is value noting because it gave McIntosh a fourth particular person gold medal in Singapore as she defeated the sphere by seven-and-a-half seconds. This efficiency confirmed some perseverance as McIntosh bounced again from a disappointing bronze medal within the 800 free sooner or later earlier, and it confirmed her unbelievable margin over the remainder of the world, even on day eight of competitors in her twelfth race of the meet.
