See all of our 2023 Swammy Awards here.
CANADIAN FEMALE SWIMMER OF THE YEAR: SUMMER MCINTOSH
It was another sensational year for Summer McIntosh, as the Canadian teen set multiple world records and defended both of her World Championship titles to clearly earn the distinction as Canadian Female Swimmer of the Year.
Thrust into the limelight with a breakout Olympic performance in 2021, McIntosh’s trajectory went into overdrive last year, winning world titles in the women’s 200 fly and 400 IM, and she continued her progression in 2023 with some of the year’s best performances.
McIntosh became a bonafide superstar in 2022, but things went to a new level this year, beginning with the Canadian World Championship Trials early in the spring.
Sixteen at the time, McIntosh kicked the meet off by breaking the world record in the women’s 400 free in a time of 3:56.08, lowering the 3:56.40 mark established by Australia’s Ariarne Titmus in 2022.
In what was her first world record, McIntosh shattered her previous best time and Canadian Record of 3:59.32, set at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
That proved to be the start of what was an incredible meet for McIntosh, and it wasn’t even her best swim of the Trials.
On the penultimate day of racing, having already set new World Junior and Canadian Records in the 200 fly (2:04.70) and 200 IM (2:06.89), McIntosh erased Katinka Hosszu‘s historic world record in the 400 IM in a time of 4:25.87, taking down the Hungarian’s 2016 standard of 4:26.36.
Prior to that swim, no one had come within two seconds of Hosszu’s time—Ye Shiwen ranked #2 at 4:28.43, while McIntosh held a best time of 4:28.61.
McIntosh finished the meet off with another record swim in the 200 free, clocking 1:53.91 to set another World Junior and Canadian Record.
McIntosh’s 2023 Canadian Trials Performances
- Women’s 400 free, 3:56.08 – WR
- Women’s 400 IM, 4:25.87 – WR
- Women’s 200 IM, 2:06.89 – WJR, CAN Record, #4 all-time
- Women’s 200 free, 1:53.91 – WJR, CAN Record, #5 all-time
- Women’s 200 fly, 2:04.70 – WJR, CAN Record, #8 all-time
At the 2023 World Championships, Canada won five individual medals, three of which were claimed by McIntosh, and she also factored into the country’s lone podium in a relay event.
After a surprising showing in the 400 free, missing the podium in fourth (3:59.94) on the opening day of the meet, McIntosh bounced back impressively in Fukuoka.
She won gold in the 200 fly, lowering her WJR in 2:04.06 to move into a tie for #5 all-time, and added a second victory in the 400 IM in 4:27.11, breaking the Championship Record to successfully defend her titles in both events.
The Toronto native added a bronze medal in the 200 free, re-lowering her WJR and Canadian Records in 1:53.65, and followed with a 1:53.97 split on Canada’s 800 free relay the following day, where the team finished fifth.
After winning medals in all three female relays at the 2022 World Championships, the Canadian women were shut out in the free relays in Fukuoka, but salvaged a second consecutive bronze in the 400 medley with McIntosh on the anchor leg.
Combining with Kylie Masse, Sophie Angus and Maggie MacNeil, McIntosh split 53.48, holding China at bay to earn Canada the bronze in 3:54.12, with the swim coming during the same session as the 400 IM.
McIntosh opted out of the 200 IM at the World Championships to avoid a scheduling conflict, but her time from the Canadian Trials held up as the fastest in the world for the year.
In 2023, McIntosh also narrowly missed breaking the nine-year-old Canadian Record in the 800 free with her time of 8:20.19, and just recently reset her lifetime best in the 200 back down to 2:06.81 at the U.S. Open, ranking #4 all-time in Canada and #8 in the world for the year.
As of mid-December, McIntosh ranked in the world’s top 10 in six events for 2023, holding the top time in two of them.
McIntosh’s 2023 World Rankings
- 200 IM – #1 (2:06.89)
- 400 IM – #1 (4:25.87)
- 200 fly – #2 (2:04.06)
- 400 free – #2 (3:56.08)
- 200 free – #3 (1:53.65)
- 200 back – #8 (2:06.81)
In addition to her 200 back swim at the U.S. Open, McIntosh also beat rival Katie Ledecky head-to-head in the 400 free in 3:59.42, and broke 4:30 for the sixth time in the 400 IM, clocking 4:29.96.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
- Maggie MacNeil — The only other individual female medalist for Canada at the World Championships, MacNeil earned silver in the women’s 100 fly in Fukuoka in a time of 56.45, ranking her #5 in the world this year. The reigning 100 fly Olympic champion also provided several key legs on the Canadian relays at Worlds, including a 55.69 fly split on the women’s medley relay that won bronze. She also set a lifetime best of 53.77 leading off the 400 free relay, ranking her #4 all-time in Canada in the 100 free, and added new PBs of 24.79 in the 50 free and 28.18 in the 50 back during the year, ranking #8 and #9, respectively, in Canada all-time.
- Kylie Masse — The ever-consistent Masse saw her streak of individual podiums in major international competition snapped at the World Championships in Fukuoka, but that was largely due to depth of field and not a decrease in performance. Masse came within a tenth of her Canadian Record in the 50 back, placing fourth at Worlds in a time of 27.28, and she also placed fourth in the 100 back (59.09) and was fifth in the 200 back (2:07.52). The 27-year-old saved her best 100 back swim of the year for the 400 medley relay, leading the Canadian women off in 58.74 to help them claim bronze in Fukuoka. In 2023, she ranks fifth worldwide in the 50 back, sixth in the 100 back and 10th in the 200 back. Masse also raced all three legs of the World Cup in October, finishing on the podium in eight of the nine events she contested.
Putting this here because I’m guessing Canadians will be reading this and interested.
TRuck popping up in Smoliga’s IG stories, looks like she’s training with ASU (or visiting) right now.
Seems she’s been touring some training options this fall (SoCal, Barcelona, ASU), or just enjoying the freedom to try some different stuff and see friends!
Same thing I mentioned below for Ruck as Oleksiak. No real results and seems to not be training too terribly seriously (showed up on Penny’s SM also….no training, just social).
That’s absolutely fine for both ladies if this is year 1 after Tokyo. But it’s basically 120 days to taper for Trials now! The ‘getting training figured out’ or ‘getting ready to get into heavy training’ is long past. The rest of world is heading into high performance tune up phases because their work is now done.
They are especially talented athletes. So if they can pull it off, then hey, kudos to them. But both of them need to be :52 low-mid at the slowest and 1:54.… Read more »
Question – why did Summer not win this last year? She was already a dual world champion. Was it just because of Maggie’s short course form?
recency bias
She should’ve won it.
Swimswam has affinity for NCAA swimmers.
Maggie’s 2022 NCAA results tipped the balance to her.
she won primarily because of her 2 short course world records, in the 50 back and 100 fly. Her 100 fly swim in particular broke the previous record by over half a second. Maggie’s 2022 NCAA was pretty subpar by her standards; two 3rd place finishes and a 10th place is nothing to write home about for a swimmer of her caliber
I’ve recently reread the comment section of the article about Hosszu breaking Ye’s 400IM WR. It’s really funny to me that the entirety of that comment section was about doping, but it has never come up about Summer.
To be very clear: I don’t think Summer is/was doping. But it’s interesting how the discussion around world records have changed over the past years.
Summer was obliterating Canadian NAGs from when she was just 9-10 year old and developing very consistently. Plus, anyone who saw her training would know where her results are coming from, as she is the Queen of consistent hardworking efforts during practices.
Ok but… so was Hosszu. I realize Hungarian NAGs are not as well known but still. She qualified for Athens at 15, and was an accomplished Worlds medalist well before she broke a world record. She had a rough 2011-2012, but it’s not like comeback stories or late bloomers are that uncommon in swimming (Lochte, Meilutyte, Fink, McEvoy etc.) .I was trying to allude to the fact that all those accusations were just Americans (and some Canadians apparently) being salty, and that although I am glad that it’s not part of the discussion about Summer, it is a brilliant example of the double standard some North Americans have.
in may 2015, the Casey Barrett wrote an opinion piece called “Are Katinka Hosszu’s Performances Being Aided?”. It was published by the other swimming website. Hosszu sued for libel that november, and lost the lawsuit shortly after rio. this lawsuit would have been at the forefront of everyone’s minds when she broke the 400 im wr, and the increased engagement that swimswam gets during the olympics probably caused this rhetoric to be overrepresented. this was possibly bolstered by anger from China, because of what Ye Shiwen was subjected to in 2012.
Summer McIntosh broke her wr in a non-olympic year and she had no lawsuit, so her swim was never going to garner as much attention from the broader sporting… Read more »
I am pretty sure Barrett is also Canadian, so… but yeah, that tracks.
Hot take:
Summer will win at least 3 individual gold in Paris.
Tbh not really even a hot take, 400 IM and 200 fly I see as pretty safe for her (even with Regan and Yufei in the latter), and I think she’s good for another gold between the 200/400 free and 200 IM. 200 free probably the least likely
I think I agree… Looking at a rough estimate of her chances
400IM – 99.9% chance of gold (fastest by a longshot, even with a terrible swim she still likely wins)
200IM – 70% chance of gold (fastest PB but not by that much, but has more room to improve than her closest competitors)
400 Free – 50% chance of gold (definitely has the ability but lost her world record, hard to bet too hard against Arnie)
200 Free – 10% chance of gold (not the fastest and double with 4IM)
200 Fly – 80% chance of gold (PB slightly slower than Zhang/Smith, but trending in the right direction)
I would say there is at least… Read more »
looking at her full potential event including her top 5 events and all the women’s relays (finals only):
So the schedule for McIntosh could be:
Day 1: 400 free prelims – 400 free finals, 4×100 free finals (1 event between)
Day 2: 200 free prelims – 200 free semis
Day 3: 400 IM prelims – 400 IM finals, 200 free finals (4 events between)
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: 200 fly prelims – 200 fly semis
Day 6: 200 fly finals – 4×200 finals (5 events between)
Day 7: 200 IM prelims – 200 IM semis
Day 8: 200 IM finals
Day 9: 4×100 medley finals
I think dropping… Read more »
I hope she steps up and does them all!
400 im and 200 free sounds like a brutal doule but KL showed that a decent 1500/200 double is feasible so… We’ll see i guess!
Not only is it a brutal double but she’s competing against mollie and titmus who are both significantly faster than her, and the former is dropping heavy time with every year
Penny Oleksiak deserves a mention here. She’s been injured for a long time and although she hasn’t raced this year, she is still training very hard in hopes to have a good year in 2024
She’s retired, that 2:02 time trial at Us Open says it all
Canada is holding a LOT of hope out for podiums both indiv and big relay help on someone who currently hasn’t put up a result that even qualifies to participate at US Olympic Trials in her best events.
If the 2:02 was suited. Yikes. Almost a :32 on that 3rd 50.
I’m afraid she’ll added to the team even if she wouldn’t show up at Trials
How do you get nominated if you haven’t raced? Is this like a participation award they give kids for showing up? C’mon now….
The award is ‘Swimmer of the year‘. How does someone deserve mention for this award if they didn’t swim this year.
I hope this is sarcasm 🤔
It has to be.
I don’t think it is. Some people are just like this.
Someone didn’t get the meaning of the article
I’m like 80% sure he’s trolling. I think. I hope?
You’ll be surprised how dense some people can be.
I was genuinely being serious here. Penny has moved out of canada to mission viejo, has been training continuously, and has had all sorts of set backs. she is still here and although she didn’t swim in any meets this year, she is still on track to attempt to try and make the olympics next year. maybe not worth like a “swimmer of the year” but maybe “preservence award”
Then you should retract your original comment.
There is no way in hell Oleksiak is honorable mention of “Canada female swimmer of 2023”.
and there is a comeback award, but that requires someone to achieve something of note after a break. mcevoy is the clear winner in 2023 – but that’s because he won a world title, doing PBs for the first time in 7 years. he didn’t win it in 2022 when he trained hard and barely competed
Give yer head a shake bud, I love Oleksiak as much as the next fan but no, she does not deserve honoroable mention or perseverance. maybe next season if she makes the team and perseveres but just training in California is not enough.
You can’t understand what a hardship it is to be Canadian and instead of being in Canada through winter moving to Southern California and training on someone else’s dime but never having to race?
Sounds like a real grind. I moved for work last year too, honestly they should name me employee of the century.
Could stopped at “you can’t understand what a hardship it is to be Canadian”.
I think the word “training” is being used pretty liberally in this situation. A 1:54 200 freestyler dropping a 31.8 split at a meet where literally all her direct competition is swimming fast might indicate otherwise.
2024 is in 2 weeks. Quick glance at Canadian Trials dates (assuming she is going to actually be made to compete to earn a spot vs being anointed to the team) basically has 18 weeks left, 126 days (pre taper). That’s it.
I think Penny is great but the last 4 plus years have been about Toronto night life and sponsorship. To be clear there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing what makes you happy but it’s highly unlikely she will qualify for any individual races unless she’s appointed to the team by other selection.
YESSSS LETS GO😍😍😍
Bro do you ever shut up
Summer gimmick is getting cringe lmao
Shouldn’t Regan smith be #1 in the 200 fly?
Her 2:03.87 from the Sun Devil Open doesn’t show up in the FINA rankings. Not sure if that is because of FINA rules or an error
I would presume the meet was sanctioned by the NCAA, but not USA swimming
It was sanctioned by USA Swimming but not World Aquatics, so that means they don’t put the time in their rankings.
Lots of lower tier meets don’t show up in the WAQ rankings.
The article didn’t say Regan Smith is not #1 in the 200 fly?
prior to my comment, Summer was listed as #1 in the 200 fly as well