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

by Sofia Altavilla 17

September 18th, 2024 International, News, Paris 2024

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.

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:

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

Swimmer Reaction Time (s)
Exit Speed (m/s)
Summer McIntosh 0.73 2.76
Kate Douglass 0.68 2.92
Kaylee McKeown 0.65 2.79
    • 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

Swimmer Underwater Time (s)
Time Above Water (s)
Summer McIntosh 20.16 1:46.50
Kate Douglass 18.99 1:47.93
Kaylee McKeown 22.24 1:45.84
Abbie Wood 25.39 1:44.12
  • 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

Rank Swimmer Time
1 Kate Douglass 26.73
2 Summer McIntosh 26.80
3 (Alex Walsh) (27.05)
4 Yu Yiting 27.31
5 Abbie Wood 27.43
6 Kaylee McKeown 27.59
7 Sydney Pickrem 27.89

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

Rank Swimmer Time
1 Kaylee McKeown 31.68
2 Summer McIntosh 31.80
3 (Alex Walsh) (32.35)
4 Sydney Pickrem 32.47
5 Yiting Yu 32.74
6 Kate Douglass 34.32

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

Rank Swimmer Time
1 Kate Douglass 35.75
2 (Alex Walsh) (36.22)
3 Sydney Pickrem 37.19
4 Yiting Yu 37.37
5 Summer McIntosh 37.53
6 Kaylee McKeown 37.77
7 Abbie Wood 37.87

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
Swimmer
Speed at exit of breast UW (m/s)
Summer McIntosh 1.55
Kate Douglass 1.88
Kaylee McKeown 1.58

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

Rank Swimmer Time
1 Kate Douglass 30.12
2 Summer McIntosh 30.43
3 Kaylee McKeown 31.04
4 Yiting Yu 31.07
5 Abbie Wood 31.43
6 (Alex Walsh) (31.44)
7 Sydney Pickrem 32.19

165-Meter Standings (Exit of last underwater)

  1. Summer McIntosh 1:45.39
  2. Kate Douglass +0.10
  3. Kaylee McKeown +0.63
Swimmer
Speed at exit of last UW (m/s)
Summer McIntosh 1.65
Kate Douglass 1.78
Kaylee McKeown 1.70

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.
Swimmer Speed 165-195m (m/s) Approach to Wall(m) Finish(s)
Summer McIntosh 1.63 0.70 0.39
Kate Douglass 1.6 0.44 0.24
Kaylee McKeown 1.57 0.43 0.25

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

Swimmer Average meters/stroke cycle
Butterfly
Average meters/stroke cycle
Backstroke
Average meters/stroke cycle
Breaststroke
Average meters/stroke cycle
Freestyle
Summer McIntosh 1.87m 2.13m 1.80m 2.13m
Kate Douglass 2.10m 2.25m 2.19m 2.28m
Kaylee McKeown 1.67m 2.12m 1.80m 2.06m
  • 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.

In This Story

17
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

17 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Viking Steve
3 months ago

I’ll always wonder what would have happened if Douglass did not swim on the morning MR (where she had to work MUCH harder than anticipated due to weak swims before her)

I think it did take a bit out of her legs which impacted the backstroke leg and prevented a win

Turn Question
3 months ago

Could it be possible that Douglass back to breast turn did not register on hand but instead feet? Splits say Pickrem was 0.7 ahead of Douglass at 100 turn, but they were dead even!

Turn Question
Reply to  Sofia Altavilla
2 months ago

Just pointing out a back/breast turn time registering on feet touch vs hand means KD back split was actually faster than recorded and breast split slower. Not sure how it impacts your analysis, if at all just splits.

Ontswammer
3 months ago

This race was still so interesting for me. Yes, Kates backstroke sucked, but it’s not like if she drops two seconds on that she can just keep the same pace for all of her other strokes. Same for Summer, as her breaststroke has gotten a lot better, they all only have so much energy. I still feel like this race could’ve gone in multiple different directions (and probably will at the next few matchups), but Summer deserves credit for being consistent throughout the race (and fastest for the right race)

snailSpace
Reply to  Ontswammer
3 months ago

This is pretty much the reason that Hosszu WR is so ridiculously tough. People were saying that with all the talent at the top, it was surely gonna fall this year (and they were saying it was going to fall in 2023 too), and it wasn’t even really close – it’s just a very balanced swim, and – in my opinion – the only conceivable way to break it is to replicate Hosszu’s last 150 with a slightly faster butterfly leg, because capitalizing on that dive-aided easy speed is going to cost you the least.
Now, McIntosh might just surprise me yet, as prodigies often do, and go, like a 2:05.1 in the near future, but I don’t see… Read more »

Eddie
3 months ago

It sucks that there’s no data for Walsh because she was driving / leading that whole race until the last 20 meters

jac
Reply to  Eddie
3 months ago

she was behind until about a third of the way in the breast leg.

snailSpace
3 months ago

I was disappointed that Kaylee wasn’t anywhere near her best – McIntosh’s schedule in particular was even tougher than hers, so getting proportionally much more exhausted towards the end of meets is a weakness she still can’t overcome it seems. Her breaststroke is normally a solid 1.5 seconds faster than what she produced here.

LelloT89
Reply to  snailSpace
3 months ago

Seeing that Summer’s breaststroke leg was faster than her was the biggest surprise to me reading the analysis. I was rooting for McIntosh, but I hope we’ll see a rematch at the world championships earlier in the meet, with all girls more rested

The Albatross
Reply to  snailSpace
3 months ago

In the usual world championships’s schedule, the heats and the semis of women’s 200 IM are in the same day as the heats and the final of the women’s 400 freestyle. In Budapest and Fukuoka, McIntosh chose to swim the 400m free instead of the 200m IM. We’ll see next year if she makes a different choice.

By the way, Summer and Kaylee faced each other in the 200m IM in the Commonwealth games two years ago and Summer won.

Kate
Reply to  snailSpace
2 months ago

Kaylee just said on the “Off the Blocks” podcast that she tested positive for covid straight after the meet finished. She may have been starting to get sick the day of the 200 IM final. Also she said that getting the double double took a lot of mental energy.

Gen D
3 months ago

KD’s backstroke split was 34.32

Lisa
Reply to  Gen D
3 months ago

Yep the reason why she lost and she’s probably win it if her back split was like in the 32.

I miss the ISL (Go dawgs)
Reply to  Lisa
3 months ago

Maybe, but that would probably take some stamina away from other legs. Her breast and free probably wouldn’t have been so fast if she really pushed the back down to a 32. It’s all a numbers game in IM, you have to calculate where to push it and where to relax because usually when one split gets faster, one gets slower. It’s really hard to get to the point where you can push one stroke more than usual and your other splits stay the same as before.

Gen D
Reply to  Lisa
3 months ago

Yes, they had made a type in the chart above. the numbers didn’t add up.