All quotes courtesy of Devin Heroux of CBC Sports.
Bob Bowman and Summer McIntosh spoke highly of one another during the Pro Swim Series stop in Austin earlier this month, touching on everything from comparisons to Michael Phelps to McIntosh’s lofty goals for the LA Olympics.
Speaking with CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux, Bowman praised McIntosh and what he’s seen from the 19-year-old since she joined his training group at the University of Texas last fall.
“What makes her great is her mindset for sure,” Bowman said, according to Heroux. “She is kind of unflappable in the training and also in the meets, at least from what I’ve seen so far. I haven’t taken her to a big meet, but I’ve seen her at these meets — she sticks to the plan. She focuses on what she needs to do, and she’s willing to do the preparation, which is the important part.
“And so when she comes in every day of practice, I can give her anything, and she will say thank you and what else do you want me to do. That’s her attitude. It’s like whatever it takes, she is willing to do.”
McIntosh said Bowman’s investment and enthusiasm day in and day out sets the tone for the entire group.
“He’s an amazing coach, and we’re just getting started and getting to know each other,” McIntosh told Heroux. “But so far it’s been great. He’s extremely down to earth and actually very easy to talk to, even though he is the Bob Bowman.
“He comes on deck every day with a great attitude. He wants to be there. He coaches every single meter that we do, he’s fully engaged in the practice. I just think that kind of rubs off on all of the swimmers and we kind of carry that sort of attitude towards our own swimming as well.”
Even before she joined Bowman, McIntosh had been drawing Phelps comparisons over the last few years, due to both her sheer dominance in multiple disciplines and, more specifically, competing in many of the same events as Phelps.
“I think it’s very fair because they swim almost identical programs,” Bowman told Heroux regarding the comparisons between Phelps and McIntosh, who both have the 200 fly, 200 IM and 400 IM as arguably their three best events.
“They’re generational talents, they work at a very high level, and so I certainly understand the similarities.”
The only difference between the two program-wise at their peak is that Phelps swam the 200 free and 100 fly as his fourth and fifth events, while McIntosh is the world record holder in the 400 free and went up to the 800 free at last summer’s World Championships, though she has spoken about getting back to the top of her game in the 200 free recently.
“I want to take her as far as she can go,” Bowman said. “And if she does that, I think she’ll end up being right up there.“
At the 2025 World Championships, prior to joining Bowman, McIntosh became just the second woman ever to win four individual golds at a single edition of the meet, joining Katie Ledecky, and she also became the second woman to win five individual medals at a single edition of the meet, joining Sarah Sjostrom.
The only swimmer who has ever won five individual gold medals at a single edition of the World Championships, or a single Olympics, is Phelps, who, guided by Bowman, accomplished the feats in back-to-back years at the 2007 Worlds in Melbourne and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
McIntosh and Bowman were open about their objective of five individual golds at the LA Olympics.
“I think when you’re chasing something that is as hard as getting five individual gold medals at an Olympic Games, you have to be able to say it out loud and you have to be able to share that dream with your coaches and people who are surrounding you, because it’s not going to come easy,” McIntosh said.
“It’s something that you have to devote yourself to every single day. Even saying it out loud to Bob Bowman as well, I feel like it kind of makes it more real for me and of course, he’s been through someone trying to get eight gold medals before, so he knows what it takes to get there.”
Bowman said, “She’s got big goals. I know exactly what they are. We talked about them on minute one. She told me everything she wants to do.
“They’re all doable and I think we have a plan to get there. I just think she has to enjoy these steps along the way and just keep feeling like she’s getting better incrementally. And if we do that for the next two years, she’ll be where she wants to be.”
McIntosh also spoke about another one of her goals, breaking the super-suited world record in the women’s 200 fly, while Bowman touched on some of the areas of improvement they’re currently working on, including “getting physically stronger” and some “technical things.”
“We’re trying to really think long term to the end of the summer, so we’re not trying to wow anybody with what we’re doing right now because she needs to put in the work, so that’s what we’re doing,” Bowman said.
McIntosh also noted that she’s enrolled in an accounting class at Texas, beginning around the start of February.
“Getting a university education has always been very important to me, and my high school was kind of dragged out because of the timing of the Olympics,” she said. “It’s really important to get an education. You can’t swim forever.”
At the Austin Pro Swim the weekend before last, McIntosh won the women’s 200 IM (2:08.48) and 400 IM (4:28.13) while placing 2nd in the 100 fly (58.56) and 4th in the 100 free (54.91).
While praising the breaststroke leg of her 400 IM, Bowman said he did not like McIntosh’s backstroke leg, making it clear he isn’t afraid to challenge her in pursuit of excellence.
200,400 IM, 200,400,800 FREE, 100, 200 fly
There’s zero chance she’s gonna be wasting bullets on the 100 fly; 800 and 2 fly are literally back to back. It’s obvious she has to choose one and it will be the 2 fly. Her 5th medal will have to come in the 2 free
You never know, Bob might be able to work his magic again.
True.
Pity he does not coach any Australians.
You already said this once, below, and between the two efforts your legion of commenters have voted you 0-15.
No doubt she’s going to be one of the greatest female swimmers of all time. Much like Leon, I’d just love to see her competitive in some shorter of events. Phelps was competitive in the 100 free and 100 fly as well as 200s and 400s which is what I think made him different.
In fairness, Phelps was only good at the 4IM, not the 400 free. Summer is ranked 1,1,2 in the 4IM, 4 free and 800 free.
Both are elite across 3 distances. Almost no one is elite across 4 distances (McKeown and Ledecky are the only active swimmers to be ranked top 3 all time in events across 4 distances, although Ledecky no longer is)
Never say never but I think Summer will always be a 200 and up middle distance swimmer. Obviously in the interview Bob talked about improving Summer’s strength as well as working on other technical things which I’m sure will help her improve over shorter distances in the future but her niche seems to be the longer races. I believe she mentioned in her interview with Gold Medal Mel that when she is swimming the fly she is faster when she isn’t trying to push her stroke but rather swimming at a smooth easy pace which is exactly what it looks like when she is racing the 200 fly.
There’s just a little bit of prestige missing in the 200s compared to the 100s. You just have to look at the number of heats and how competitive the 100s are compared to the 200s.
I don’t like these kind of comparisons. Phelps was from a totally different era. Summer will have her own legacy which is still being written.
100 % ok.
But I understand it though , Michael is perhaps the greatest athlete of all time and in such a “niche” sport as swimming, every swimmer wants to get as close as possible to his level and “superhuman” legacy.
Moreover, Bob is the man behind the legend so the comparison is inevitable whether it’s for Summer or Léon.
But for younger swimmers, it may be complicated to be the ‘new Phelps” with all the pressure that implies and don’t meet expectations.
This can be self-destructive and a sport shouldn’t ever be.
Pleasure must remain the norm !
She will not win 8 golds and is MUCH slower than Michael in every event – In what way is she close to being in the same galaxy of greatness?
3/5 bait. Nice work.
She actually has a faster recorded 800 free than Phelps lol
Australian Pallister will ruin her plans.
Bro, she ain’t doing the 800 free. It’s back to back with the 2 fly.
Bowman also said Phelps – Marchand comparisons were reasonable and …. oh, yeah….
what? when?
They are
I saw this article on the Olympics subreddit more than a week ago. I wondered why it hadn’t been promoted here.
Defeating Ledecky in an 800 Olympic final would have been a massive boost toward Summer’s legacy and Phelps comparisons. Getting robbed of that opportunity by the schedule makers is one of many reasons I now wish 2028 had been awarded to a different country.
Everyone that makes this argument seems to forget that Lani Pallister won silver last summer and is only getting better.
No one forgets. Lani is a great swimmer. But Summer McIntosh has a faster personal best, is younger, objectively more talented, had only recently trained for the 800 free, and also won 4 other big races that meet. Lani is right there with them in that race, but let’s get serious, summer is a bit different.
Lani also swims the event more than Summer, plus she enjoys it more.
then it would be great for summers legacy to have the chance to try to beat Katie and Lani. Organisers robbed her of that.
I am saying this as someone who is rooting for Pallister in a match-up between these three: it’s not quite the same. Ledecky vs McIntosh is a GOAT vs GOAT kind of race. Lani is a wonderful (and initially unexpected) addition to that equation, but she doesn’t quite carry the same hype, even if she does beat Ledecky.
Did you feel that way when the schedule was moved around to favor Marchand in Paris?
Summer just continue to have Fun