Canadian superstar Summer McIntosh has been racking up the accolades in everyone’s year-end awards as we turn the page on 2025, and she picked up another from L’Equipe, France’s top news outlet with comprehensive sports coverage.
L’Equipe annually hands out its men’s and women’s “Champion of Champions” award, both to international athletes and a separate distinction for French natives, voted on by editorial staff to recognize the best in the world of sport each year.
McIntosh claimed the Female Champion of Champions award in the international category for the first time in 2025, winning alongside Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogacar.
McIntosh’s victory marks the first time a female swimmer has won the award since Katie Ledecky in 2017, though Leon Marchand claimed the men’s international award just last year.
In 2024, Marchand topped the men’s voting ahead of Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis and Pogacar, while on the women’s side, American gymnast Simone Biles won the award comfortably ahead of McIntosh and Ledecky.
This year, McIntosh earned 628 points in votes to win the women’s award, leading American sprinter and hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (516) and fellow U.S. sprinter Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (425).
Ledecky, after winning an epic 800 free final at the World Championships over McIntosh while also claiming the 1500 free crown, finished 5th in voting.
McIntosh made history in many ways in 2025, becoming the second woman in history to claim four individual golds at a single World Championships, joining Ledecky (2015), while also becoming the second female to win five individual medals at a single edition of the meet, joining Sarah Sjostrom (2019).
McIntosh also set new world records in the women’s 400 free (3:54.18), 200 IM (2:05.70) and 400 IM (4:23.65), and produced the second-fastest swim in history in the 200 fly (2:01.99) and the third-fastest ever in the 800 free (8:05.07).
Female 2025 Champion of Champions Voting Results
- Summer McIntosh (Canada), swimming, 628 points
- Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (United States), track and field, 516 points
- Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (United States), track and field, 425 points
- Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt (France), cycling, 375 points
- Katie Ledecky (United States), swimming, 331 points
- Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus), tennis, 293 points
- Federica Brignone (Italy), skiing, 151 points
- Aitana Bonmati (Spain), soccer, 140 points
- Beatrice Chebet (Kenya), track and field, 85 points
- Angelina Melnikova (Russia), gymnastics, 72 points
On the men’s side, Pogacar won the award after a historic year that saw him win his second straight Tour de France title and fourth overall, beating runner-up Jonas Vingegaard by four minutes and 24 seconds.
Pogacar also won three Monuments in 2025, claiming Liege-Bastogne-Liege for the third time, the Giro di Lombardia for the fifth straight time, and the Tour of Flanders for the second time, and added the UCI Road World Championship title and the European Road Cycling Championship title to his resume.
In men’s voting, Pogarar (821) was followed by Duplantis (799), who was the runner-up for the second straight year, while tennis star Carlos Alcaraz (252) ranked a distant 3rd. Marchand was the only swimmer in the top 10, ranking 6th.
Male 2025 Champion of Champions Voting Results
- Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia), cycling, 821 points
- Armand Duplantis (Sweden), athletics, 799 points
- Carlos Alcaraz (Spain), tennis, 252 points
- Ousmane Dembélé (France), football, 226 points
- Jannik Sinner (Italy), tennis, 169 points
- Leon Marchand (France), swimming, 146 points
- Marc Marquez (Spain), motorcycling, 134 points
- Marco Odermatt (Switzerland), skiing, 104 points
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada), basketball, 103 points
- Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), golf, 75 points
This honor for McIntosh adds to her year-end haul, which also includes the World Aquatics Female Swimmer of the Year, the Canadian Press Female Athlete of the Year, and the Swammy Awards for Female and Canadian Female Swimmer of the Year.
Congratulations Summer!🍁
Summer already deserved this distinction in 2024.
Sydney or Femke Bol or Wooden should be the winner
Wooden won 100 and 200 and a relay! Track is more popular than swimming lol
Four golds for summer (individual) seems more impressive than two plus a relay on its surface….
3 world records, 4 World titles = Summer.
Track over aquatics
Also made the Chinese state media “Xinhua News Agency” world’s top 10 athletes in 2025
https://english.news.cn/20251228/952d839e823d40eab8b2b96dac82b155/c.html
She’s a swimming superstar ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
👏🎉🥳
Austin pro series psych sheets are out. She is competing
Is Daniel Wiffen training with PLS? It’s listed after Cal as his 2nd team affiliation.
I’m not sure tbh. Anyone have any ideas?
I’ll ask. He and Lucas Henveaux were there for a practice or two last year…may just be a pay-to-rep deal?
Daniel is always quick to respond. Love him for that.
Pleasanton sponsored his visa to train in America.
Hope Summer doesn’t get side-tracked by all the ego-stroking accolades. She’s nearing her competitive peak and now is the time to double down on best times and performances. There are younger up and comers (such as China’s Yu Zidi) that are dropping times faster than she is. The next Olympics won’t be a cake-walk and Summer have to steel herself come 2028.
I mean who know but many sources have said summer is incredibly professional and dedicated. She has also had a very supportive family and team working with her. If anyone she seems pretty focused on her goals
She seems to have a mature personality and has strong family support. She’ll be fine.
Everything I’ve seen and read about Summer seems to suggest she is one of the most competitive of all time. This is strange concern to have.
With zero evidence otherwise- in results, attitude or behaviour.
Swimming: Our swimmers must do a better job promoting the sport.
Swimming: Summer had better focus more on swimming and less on branding.
This is the literal conflict right now in the sport. The old school is Robbie’s comment, the new school is “Swimming.”
I don’t think there are many of the same people saying both things. It’s a camp divided.
I think there is balance. It’s worth looking at other sports. I love most sport documentaries on Netflix, e.g. about the Tour de France. Cyclists in the new era are humble, professional, focused and yet marketable. (Tennis: the opposite. I have yet to see a player who did not smash the racket)
Why can’t a swimmer like Summer have a show about a year of her life on Netflix? The greatest frigging athlete on Planet Earth.
I Voted Morreen the Champuon of Champuon of Champions yesterday. Check mate MacIntosh.
Randy
But….Morreen is the head of HOA