How Summer McIntosh Did Enough For 200 IM Gold Despite Douglass’ Blistering Breaststroke

The French Swimming Federation has released detailed statistics on all the swimming finals at the Paris Olympics, and in this article, we will analyze the women’s 200-meter IM final.

• Keep track of all our Olympic breakdowns with the SwimSwam Tracker here.

The women’s 200 IM was the most highly anticipated race of the Olympics, and it delivered. It was an exciting battle, especially due to the different strengths and weaknesses of the big favorites.

In the race, and later on the podium, there was the reigning Olympic champion in the 200 butterfly, Summer McIntosh, in the 200 breaststroke Kate Douglass, and in the 200 backstroke, Kaylee McKeown.

Note that since she was disqualified, full data was not available for Alex Walsh, who initially touched third.

From the graph below, we can already see the obvious weaknesses and strengths of the three medalists.

For example, we observe:

• The drastic drop in backstroke by Kate Douglass
• Summer McIntosh and Kaylee McKeown with approximately the same speed in backstroke
• The final acceleration by Douglass and McIntosh on freestyle

But let’s analyze meter by meter

We’ll approach the analysis by dividing the race into two parts and focusing on some details. In the first part, we’ll look at the start and the underwater phases. In the second, we focus on the swimming, or “over the water” segments, along with the turns, and the finish.

We will include in the analysis the splits in the individual strokes of Alex Walsh, despite her disqualification.

THE START & UNDERWATERS

The Start

• • The best start was by McKeown with a reaction time of 0.65
  • Douglass immediately gains great speed from the underwater phase compared to her rivals.

Underwater Phases

• Abbie Wood is the swimmer who covered the greatest distance underwater: At 47.14 meters, 23.6% of her race was underwater.
• Even McKeown’s underwater phases were longer than her rivals, especially the initial one off the start and during the backstroke.
• The underwaters of Douglass and McIntosh were very similar in terms of distance, but the American’s average speed was 2.1m/s, compared to McIntosh’s 1.88m/s.

THE SWIMMING PHASES

BUTTERFLY

Split

45-Meter Standings

1. Kate Douglass 23.81
2. Summer McIntosh +0.13
3. Kaylee McKeown +0.44

• • As expected McIntosh, the gold medalist in the 200 fly, and Douglass,  an excellent sprinter, dominated the butterfly leg.
  • Until just before the flags and the approach to the fly-back turn, McKeown is among the top three, about half a second behind Douglass.
  • On the turn, the Australian was too long, losing another half-second.

BACKSTROKE

Split

65-Meter Standings (Exit of second underwater)

1. Kate Douglass 35.95
2. Summer McIntosh +0.12
3. Yiting Yu +0.28
4. Abbie Wood +0.30
5. Kaylee McKeown +0.56

95-Meter Standings

1. Summer McIntosh 55.50
2. Kaylee McKeown +0.74
3. Yiting Yu +1.12
4. Abbie Wood +1.55
5. Kate Douglass +1.63
6. Sydney Pickrem +1.70

• • After the turn, Douglass tries not to lose much ground with an excellent underwater, and at 65 meters, she is still in the lead.
  • Despite this, it is clear (following the pink line) how drastic the American’s speed change is, with her backstroke leg being the slowest of all, about 1.5 seconds behind the second-to-last.
  • In this leg, McKeown, as expected, recovers a lot of her deficit, but an excellent backstroke performance by McIntosh prevents her from taking the lead.
  • The Canadian’s time of 31.80 is only 0.12 seconds off the Australian specialist’s time.

BREASTSTROKE

Split

115-Meter Standings (Exit of third underwater)

1. Summer McIntosh 1:09.03
2. Kaylee McKeown +0.33
3. Yiting Yu+1.12
4. Kate Douglass +1.48

145-Meter Standings

1. Summer McIntosh 1:32.37
2. Kaylee McKeown +0.76
3. Kate Douglass +0.99

• • It’s impressive to note the speed difference achieved during the breaststroke underwater phase by Douglass compared to her rivals. While McIntosh and McKeown settle around 1.55 m/s, Douglass reaches up to 1.88 m/s.
  • Thanks to this boost and her breaststroke technique, the Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 200m breaststroke manages to recover almost a second from the deficit accumulated at the 100-meter mark. Douglass records one of the few (if not the only) sub-36 second splits in the breaststroke leg of a women’s 200 IM, with a time of 35.75.
  • Although she was disqualified, it’s worth noting Walsh’s breaststroke performance, which recorded a time of 36.22.
  • Even McIntosh’s swim (37.53), while not outstanding compared to other strokes, is notable given that her previous personal best of 2:06.89 included a 50m breaststroke split of 38.63.

FREESTYLE

Split

165-Meter Standings (Exit of last underwater)

1. Summer McIntosh 1:45.39
2. Kate Douglass +0.10
3. Kaylee McKeown +0.63

195-Meter Standings

1. Summer McIntosh 2:03.79
2. Kate Douglass +0.39
3. Kaylee McKeown +1.35

• With another excellent turn and, above all, an underwater where her speed far exceeds that of her competitors, Douglass closes in to just 0.1 seconds behind McIntosh. Douglass, among the best in the world at the 50 and 100 free, records the fastest freestyle split at 30.12.
• McIntosh’s split is also impressive: her 30.42 allows her to overtake a fatigued (and subsequently disqualified) Walsh, who was ahead until about 30 meters from the finish.
• It’s evident that Douglass’s speed comes primarily from her push off the wall and her underwater phase, as in the last 30 meters, the Canadian’s speed surpasses McIntosh’s, increasing the gap from 0.1 seconds to 0.39 seconds.

PODIUM

1. Summer McIntosh (CAN), 2:06.56 OR
2. Kate Douglass (USA),  2:06.92
3. Kaylee McKeown (AUS), 2:08.08

Strokes and Breathing Analysis

• The stroke efficiency of Douglass is superior in every stroke. Especially in butterfly and breaststroke, the difference is vast: for each butterfly stroke, the American covered 2.10m, compared to McIntosh’s 1.87m. And for each stroke of breast, Douglass covered 2.19m compared to her rivals’ 1.80m.
• The highest stroke rate, which is probably a result of the lower efficiency, belongs to McKeown. The Australian had competed, and won, her 200 backstroke final just the day before, a factor that may have influenced her frequency data.
• Even in freestyle, where both McIntosh and McKeown were around 46 strokes per minute, Douglass only reached 42.
• Side note: the heights of the athletes are 1.78m for McIntosh and Douglass and 1.75m for McKeown.

CONCLUSION

With the complete picture, some observations and questions arise:

• McIntosh not only has great ability in balancing her energy, but also shows great competitiveness and a strong race finish.
• Not so much the distance covered, but the speed of execution of Douglass’s underwater phases, especially in breaststroke and freestyle, allowed her to finish second.
• What could Douglass achieve if she improved even slightly in the backstroke leg?
• On one hand, McKeown’s backstroke could have been more decisive, while on the other, the Canadian’s performance on back deserves proper attention.