Summer season McIntosh Again in Water En Path to World Brief Course Champs; Coach Brent Arckey: ‘We’ll Play With Some Different Occasions’
Six weeks have elapsed since Summer season McIntosh dazzled on the Olympic Video games, strolling away with 4 particular person medals in Paris – together with titles within the 200 butterfly and each butterfly disciplines. Now, the 18-year-old is again within the water after a quick break, once more working with coach Brent Arckey with the Sarasota Sharks.
Arckey was within the Philadelphia space over the weekend as one of many featured audio system on the annual Japanese States Swim Clinic. Arckey, who was on the Canadian teaching workers for the Paris Video games, supplied quite a lot of talks to the coaches and swimmers in attendance on the clinic, along with his work with McIntosh a focus.
“It’s actually been an attention-grabbing fall,” Arckey stated in an interview with Swimming World. “I took somewhat break day. She took somewhat break day and now we’re getting again into it. I’m pleased with every little thing and it’s good to take a deep breath and consider every little thing and the place we need to go transferring ahead.”
As McIntosh returns to coaching and dealing towards the World Brief Course Championships in Budapest in December, this fall will even present a chance to reap the rewards of her distinctive Olympic marketing campaign. She’ll deal with some sponsorship tasks and extra calls for for her time, which McIntosh will navigate with the assist of her household.
Arckey indicated that the plan for McIntosh was to step away from the pool for 2 weeks after the Olympic Video games, however the 18-year-old took somewhat extra time earlier than returning to coaching. But, as soon as she hopped again within the water, McIntosh was hungry to embrace the workload designed by Arckey.
“She’s able to go,” Arckey stated. “She has a number of engagements she’s going to do, however she’s excited to get again to it. She actually loves the work and loves the day-to-day side of coaching. However she’s additionally excellent about turning it on and turning it off. Her weekends are her weekends, however she comes able to work on Mondays as a result of she takes care of herself on the weekends.”
McIntosh’s schedule has been mapped out by December, with the World Brief Course Champs capping the 2024 marketing campaign. Past that competitors, Arckey will quickly map out the subsequent steps, together with what McIntosh will race on the 2025 World Championships in Singapore.
Because the world’s most-versatile feminine swimmer, choices shall be aplenty for McIntosh. Her Olympic schedule featured the 400 freestyle, 200 butterfly, 200 IM and 400 IM. She’s additionally among the many world’s premier performers within the 200 freestyle and 800 freestyle, and her backstroke marks one other space the place McIntosh charges as one of many globe’s finest.
“We’re actually enthusiastic about that,” Arckey stated of McIntosh’s decisions. “We need to play with another occasions, particularly the backstroke. We’ll be doing another issues and have some enjoyable whereas racing for the subsequent 12 months or so. Possibly there shall be a few doorways that may open up, and one thing will present up that we need to hold growing. That’s one of the best half about an IMer. You possibly can work on a bunch of various issues.”