TIME magazine has revealed its 2024 TIME100 Next list and Canadian swimming superstar Summer McIntosh has made the cut – and elevating the honor is the fact that her honoray blurb was written by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The annual list celebrates 100 rising leaders across an array of fields including entertainment, politics, business, sport and more, who are “shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership.”
McIntosh solidified her status as a household name after becoming the only Canadian athlete to win 3 golds in a single Olympic Games. The teen topped the podium this summer in Paris in the women’s 200m fly, 200m IM and 400m IM and also captured silver in the 400m free.
Prior to her Olympic fame, McIntosh wreaked havoc on the World Championships stage. She took 200m fly and 400m IM gold at the 2022 edition in Budapest and successfully defended her titles a year later in Fukuoka.
Of 18-year-old McIntosh Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated, “her performances in the pool were remarkable as she brought our nation to its feet and inspired the new generation of Canadian swimmers to dream big.
“Summer and all of Team Canada made us proud as we continue to celebrate their hard work, dedication, and sporting excellence.” (Time Magazine)
Other featured athletes include American women’s rugby player Ilona Maher, USA men’s gymnast Fred Richard and American NFL player C.J. Stroud.
Also on the list was Kaitlyn Sadtler, who unlike McIntosh is much better known for her accomplishments outside of the pool. Sadtler is an accomplished immunologist and and bioengineer who swam in high school.
So how many American swimmers made the list?
Guys what time is she going in 200m fly next summer?
2:01.80 at next world trials 🙂
2:02.00
Not sure what “The Next 100” really means. Is there some criteria that speaks to impact on community/altruism/charity?
Regardless, the best thing she could do with her fame (and fortune) is push like crazy for Sport Canada to fund aquatics and build more 50M facilities (aka 20 lanes of 25M…) given Canada has only 1 truly legitimate facility capable of hosting international meets (TPASC) and a paucity of other 50M facilities. Since she doesn’t even train in Canada, it’s the least she could do to give back to the swim community and become a true leader beyond her own accomplishments in the water. Her “buzz” of fame is likely at its peak in terms of she’s still very young… Read more »
I detect a green eyed monster in this comment
Winning three individual gold medals in a single Olympics not only ensures you “a buzz of fame”, but also an enviable place in swimming History for a long time.
Doesn’t matter if you don’t use it to better the Canadian swimming landscape. She may cause a bump in kids who wish to try the sport but they’ll have nowhere to train.
There are SO many other factors that go into major aquatic facility sustainability than competitive swimmer usage.
Blah blah blah. You sound like a politician.
Apologies for existing within the planes of reality.
Thank you for reminding us.
Clearly Canada is a hockey-driven country and doesn’t value sport the way countries such as Australia, Hungary, Norway do. The first two culturally made a commitment to sport and specifically aquatics. It’s all about culture and motivation. It’s not complicated to build a 50M pool. In fact, it’s ever been easier or as cost-effective. Just Google Idaho 50M pool project and see how easy it is. You don’t need to build a community centre every time.
The fact remains, with great success, comes great responsibility whether she likes it or not. Canada has never had such a prolific swimmer in the era of Social Media. Not since 1984 LA did Canada have as much attention… Read more »
True re pool infrastructure in Canada.
But let’s “give her a minute” to enjoy her last year as a teenager after her incredible efforts to get to the status of multiple Olympic champ.
She’s 18. And the best in the world at multiple events. That’s quite a lot to take on without expecting her to be single-handedly responsible for developing world-class facilities across Canada.
Heard of Greta Thunberg? Malala? She’s a child of extreme privilege. Her dad makes $3.5M a year, She can certainly take on a “social cause”. It’s not like we’re asking her to combat climate change or global warming.
Single handily taking on the guy who nominated her for this stupid award (Canadian Prime Minister) shouldn’t be too difficult. She’s probably got him on speed dial.
Their primary purpose was lobbying for change. I’m not saying that Summer will never want to do these things, but right now she’s training as a full time job to be the best in the world and I think we should be really careful about saying what an 18 year old “should” be doing when she’s already under pretty extreme pressure. No doubt there are plenty of people that would be happy to criticise if she didn’t continue to achieve at the level she has been because she’s been “distracted” by outside interests.
What about Victoria, Edmonton, Winnipeg and the Olympic pools in Montreal? All can and have hosted major International meets and are beautiful facilities. Even with less seating. We can always have more but coming from Guelph and coaching in Illinois you haven’t seen a lack of Facilities until you visit Illinois.
Old pools, no seating, most don’t have 10 lanes. Montreal isn’t capable (just look to last February’s fire at Olympic stadium to see how many Canadian facilities can legitimately host even Olympic Trials never mind a World Cup). Canada is very different than USA. Lots of people (over 60% of the population lives in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver when combined and half of the population basically lives in Ontario). So having 50M pools in Edmonton is fine and dandy but that’s not where the population is. That’s not to say that other smaller cities couldnt benefit from adding 59M water real estate either!
As for her commitment to time outside of training, perhaps she should have thought about this a… Read more »
You’re over-reacting on Red Bull. While it has about 3 times the amount of caffeine than a coke, most no one would likely bat an eyeball if an adolescent had a couple of cokes to drink.
And I doubt that the media that is running Red Bull ads is targeting 6-14 young girl demographic.
This should be great for swimming. Congratulations Summer
There was another far less accomplished swimmer on the list, but very accomplished scientist! Kaitlyn Sadtler, who I swam with in Highschool is on there under innovators. Just a fun little tidbit.
Good spotting!
They didn’t finish the paragraph about her above.
Nothing “next” about her.
She’s very much NOW.
Exactly what I thought… Next?