PSS Ft Lauderdale: Summer McIntosh Enters Her First 200m Fly Since Winning World Title

2023 Pro Swim Series – Fort Lauderdale

• March 1-4, 2023
• Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
• Long Course Meters (50 meters), Prelims/Finals
• Psych Sheets

As college conference championship season winds down next week, USA Swimming’s elite long course season will start revving up, with the Fort Lauderdale stop of the 2023 Pro Swim Series. This will be the second stop of the series after January’s stop in Knoxville.

This meet is due for another big field as the series returns to normal following some lower registrations during and coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most of the biggest pro and junior names in American swimming, as well as a handful of international stars, will be at the meet.

In fact, aside from the current collegians, only four members of last year’s American World Championship team are missing: Hali Flickinger, Leah Hayes, Mallory Comerford, Caeleb Dressel, and the retired Trey Freeman.

That includes a great women’s 100 free field that includes a resurgent Abbey Weitzeil, who swam very well in Knoxville, Erika Brown, Natalie Hinds, Olivia Smoliga, and Simone Manuel.

American superstar Katie Ledecky is also in that field, as is Hong Kong star swimmer Siobhan Haughey.

Ledecky is not entered in the 400 or 1500, but has choices to race the 100 free, 200 free, 800 free, 200 fly, and 400 IM.

Arizona State pro Regan Smith is also back after illness ended her meet early in Knoxville. She is entered in the 50 back, 100 back, 200 back, 100 fly, 200 free, and 400 free.

She had some non-primary entries in Knoxville too, like the IM races. She has been swimming well in butterfly and backstroke races, and training with Bob Bowman, arguably history’s greatest IM coach ever, has given some thought that she might add the 200 or 400 IM to her event lineup. She had an entry in Knoxville in the 200 IM, but ultimately we didn’t get to see that race there, and won’t in Fort Lauderdale either.

Summer McIntosh, a 16-year-old Canadian star who trains in Florida, will swim her second meet of the year. In her first, the Orlando Sectionals Championships, she swam best times in four individual events, mostly secondary races. Now, in Fort Lauderdale, she’s entered in both the 200 fly, where she’s the defending World Champion.

If she swims that race, it will be her first 200 meter fly since winning the World title.

She also has entries in the 200 IM, 100 free, 200 free (with Ledecky and Haughey, among others), and 200 back.

On the men’s side, big names include Ryan Held and Shaine Casas, who will go head-to-head in the 100 free. They’re separated on the psychs by British Olympian Matthew Richards, who is having a resurgence to his younger career under new training at the Millfield School.

Casas will also have big backstroke battles with both Hunter Armstrong and Justin Ress in the 50 – but not the 100.

Casas has entries in the 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 50 back, 50 fly, and 100 fly, but not the 100 backstroke.

Michael Andrew and Nic Fink, expected to battle for the next two years for the top spot in the American men’s 100 breaststroke, are both entered in this meet – and the 100 breaststroke.

Andrew is entered in the 50 fly, 100 fly, 50 breast, 100 breast, and 50 free; he hasn’t swum a 200 IM since last April and seems to be honing-in on the 50 and 100 meter races ahead of the Fukuoka World Championships later this year.

Among his competitors in that 50 fly is Portugal’s Diego Ribeiro. Ribeiro caught attention last year when he broke the World Junior Record in the 50 fly at the World Junior Championships in 22.96. He has not raced outside of Portugal since that meet.

The 2023 Pro Swim Series meet will start on Wednesday, March 1 and run through Saturday, March 4.