Toronto’s own Summer McIntosh won her third medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Thursday, taking home gold in the women’s 200 m butterfly with a record time of 2:03.03. The 17-year-old also won her first gold medal on Monday at the women’s 400-metre individual medley and brought home silver in the women’s 400-metre freestyle medley on Saturday.
GOLD FOR CANADA 🇨🇦
SHE DID IT
OLYMPIC RECORD
SUMMER MCINTOSH HAS DONE IT AGAIN
HER SECOND GOLD MEDAL
HER THIRD OLYMPIC MEDAL pic.twitter.com/glhLDv5w2E
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) August 1, 2024
According to the Canadian Olympic Committee — at the start of the race, McIntosh was slightly behind the defending Olympic champion, China’s Zhang Yufei, before closing the gap in the first half of the race. Heading into the last 50 metres, McIntosh had a lead of nearly three-quarters of a second. Zhang began to fall behind and was overtaken by the U.S.’s Regan Smith. Smith ended up with silver (with a time of 2:03.84) followed by Yufei with the bronze (2:05.09).
There are a number of “firsts” with McIntosh’s wins: This is Canada’s first-ever Olympic medal in the 200 m butterfly event. McIntosh is the first Canadian woman to win two gold medals in one edition of the Olympic Summer Games, with both gold medals coming in individual events. She’s also the first Canadian swimmer since George Hodgson in 1972 (at the Munich Games) and Alex Baumann in 1984 (at the Los Angeles Games) to win two gold medals at an Olympic Games.
This is the second Olympic Games for the phenom swimmer, who was the youngest athlete on Team Canada at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 (she was just 14 years old at the time), where she finished fourth in the 400 m freestyle.
In her first two appearances at the World Aquatics Championships in 2022 and 2023, she won eight medals (including four gold medals), becoming the first Canadian swimmer to win four career gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships.
This isn’t the last we’ll see of her. McIntosh will race in the freestyle relay later today and will compete in the 200-metre individual medley.
As of publication, Canada has 8 medals at Paris 2024 (three gold, two silver, and three bronze).