Canada’s Summer McIntosh strikes gold again, closing in on history at swimming worlds

CTV’s John Vennavally-Rao speaks with Ontario Swim Academy head coach Don Burton about Summer McIntosh’s hat-trick at the world championships.

SINGAPORE -- Make that three world championship gold medals for Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh.

The 18-year-old from Toronto won the women’s 200-metre butterfly Thursday in a meet-record two minutes 1.99 seconds, which was just shy of the world record of 2:01.81.

The Canadian touched the wall three seconds ahead of silver medallist Regan Smith of the United States in 2:04.99, while Australia’s Elizabeth Dekkers claimed bronze in 2:06.12 in Singapore.

McIntosh’s swim was the fastest ever in a textile suit and now ranks second all-time, trailing only the world record set in 2009 by China’s Liu Zige during the now-banned “super suit” era.

McIntosh, the Olympic gold medallist in the 200 fly last year, also broke her “(Canadian record set in June’s trials.

She became the first Canadian to claim a trio of gold medals at a single world championship, as well as the first to win three world titles in the same event after victories in 2022 and 2023.

McIntosh wasn’t entirely satisfied Thursday.

“(Winning) was the goal going in, but my other goal tonight was to break the world record, which often I don’t really say or focus on, but to see how close I was to breaking it and not getting it, I’m a little bit frustrated,” McIntosh said. “I can’t be too hard on myself. It’s still a personal best time and I’m dropping time from a time I went just over a month ago.”

McIntosh also won the 200 individual medley and 400 freestyle earlier in the meet. She’s aiming for five individual titles -- a feat only U.S. great Michael Phelps has achieved at a single world championship.

McIntosh returned to the water Friday for the 800-metre freestyle heats, qualifying for Saturday’s final and a potential showdown with reigning Olympic champion Katie Ledecky.

McIntosh won the second heat with a time of 8:19.88. She had the third-best overall time behind Australia’s Lani Pallister (8:17.06) and Ledecky (8:14.62), who both qualified from the third heat.

McIntosh is the Olympic champ and world-record holder in the 400-metre individual medley, and that final is Sunday when the championship concludes.

“Seeing how close I was (to the 200 fly world record) gives me a lot of confidence, and the way I felt in that final is amazing as well, so I’m super, super excited for the 800 and then of course the 400 IM,” McIntosh said. “Now all my focus is on getting a good recovery tonight and then getting ready for the heats.”

Her victory Thursday was the 11th medal of her career at long-course worlds, which pushed her past veteran teammate Kylie Masse, of LaSalle, Ont.

Masse, a five-time Olympic medallist, just missed keeping pace with McIntosh by finishing fourth in women’s 50-metre backstroke. Masse fell short of the podium by three hundredths of a second.

“It’s always challenging,” said the 29-year-old. “You really have to be perfecting every skill to be competing for the podium. It’s obviously unfortunate to miss out by nothing, but at the end of the day, I have to be proud of myself and what I’ve accomplished this year.”

American Katharine Berkoff took gold in 27.08 seconds ahead of teammate Regan Smith was second in 27.25 and China’s Letian Wan claimed bronze in 27.30. Calgary’s Ingrid Wilm placed eighth.

Saskatoon’s Blake Tierney lowered the Canadian record in the 200-men’s backstroke in his heat and again in his semifinal to qualify for Friday’s final with the fifth-fastest time of 1:55.03. “I think at trials I didn’t really display my best stuff,” Tierney said. “I had an (ankle) injury going into it, so wasn’t working the kick a lot. I got that sorted and this meet I’ve had better prep. You always want to be quicker, so hopefully 1:54 in the final, that would be nice.”

Singapore offers a prize purse of US$3.1 million for pool and open-water swimmers, plus a $30,000 bonus to swimmers who break world records.

Also Thursday, Canada placed sixth in the women’s 4x200 freestyle relay final, with Brooklyn Douthwright, Sienna Angove, Ella Cosgrove and Ella Jansen finishing in 7:52.52. Australia won gold in 7:39.35, ahead of the United States (7:40.01) and China (7:42.99).

Oliver Dawson of Grande Prairie, Alta., finished 11th in the 200-metre breaststroke. The 17-year-old set a national age group record with a time of 2:10.32 in the semifinals.

Canada has won six medals at the world aquatics championships -- five in swimming and one in high diving.

Katelyn Fung of London, Ont., narrowly missed a diving medal in her world championship debut by finishing fourth in the women’s 10-metre final Thursday.

The 21-year-old totalled 343.20 points behind Chinese champion Yuxi Chen (430.50), silver medallist Pauline Alexandra Pfeif of Germany (367.10), and China’s Peiling Xie (358.20).

“Honestly, I haven’t realized what happened quite yet, but I can say I’m more than satisfied with my performance,” Fung said. “Fourth place at my first individual world championships is incredible.”

“This really wasn’t on my bingo card for 2025 at all.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 31, 2025.