2024 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS (25M)
- December 10-15, 2024
- Duna Arena – Budapest, Hungary
- SCM (25 meters)
- Meet Central
- Full Schedule
- Day 1 Prelims Recap | Day 1 Finals Live Recap
- Live Results
It’s winter in the northern hemisphere, but the season of Summer continues in Budapest. Summer McIntosh obliterated the short-course women’s 400-meter freestyle world record to open the first night of finals at the 2024 Short Course World Championships. This is McIntosh’s first major meet since winning four medals, including three gold, at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Li Bingjie held the former world world record at 3:51.30, swum back in October 2022. McIntosh hacked over a second off Li’s standard; the 18-year-old jumped on the race, leading from start to finish. McIntosh was out in 55.14, opening up a lead on both the field and Li’s record.
Li negative split world record swim, so the world record line crept up on McIntosh on the back half of the race, but she had done so much work to get out ahead of the world record line on the opening meters that it didn’t matter and she still took 1.05 seconds off the standard.
World Record Split Comparison
| Summer McIntosh – New WR | Li Bingjie — Former WR | |
| 50 | 26.49 | 27.41 |
| 100 | 28.65 | 29.31 |
| 150 | 29.06 | 29.55 |
| 200 | 29.33 | 29.61 |
| 250 | 29.13 | 29.39 |
| 300 | 29.28 | 29.25 |
| 350 | 29.43 | 29 |
| 400 | 28.88 | 27.78 |
| 3:50.25 | 3:51.30 |
Of course, this swim also breaks the world junior, Americas, and Canadian record in the women’s 400-meter freestyle. McIntosh wasn’t the only one in the final to climb into the top five all-time in this event. Behind her, Lani Pallister claimed the silver medal in an Oceanian record time, breaking Ariarne Titmus‘ mark from 2018 by .19 seconds.
Women’s 400m Freestyle Top 5 All-Time (SCM)
- Summer McIntosh, Canada — 3:50.25 (2024)
- Li Bingjie, Canada — 3:51.30 (2022)
- Katie Ledecky, United States — 3:52.80 (2022)
- Lani Pallister, Australia — 3:53.73 (2024)
- Ariarne Titmus, Australia — 3:53.92 (2018)
This is the start of a busy week for McIntosh, where she could bring in a big medal haul for a second straight major international competition. While she skipped the 200 IM and focused on the 400 freestyle on Day 1 in Budapest, she’s also entered in the 200 backstroke, 200 butterfly, and 400 IM at these championships.
Is Li Bingjie Canada or China?
Super proud of Summer. She is not only an incredibly talented athlete to watch, she is also very gracious and shows tremendous sportsmanship. She carries her mantle well. ♡ Big Congrats to Mary Sophie on her bronze as well!
It was a big day for the young Canadian. It was just announced that Summer has won the Northern Star award as Canada’s top athlete of the year for 2024. She is the ninth swimmer to win this prestigious award and the first swimmer to win it since Penny Oleksiak won it in 2016.