Summer McIntosh Isn’t Just The 200 Fly World Record Holder – She Defines The Event Right Now

2026 Bell Canadian Swimming Trials

• July 5-9, 2026
• Montreal, Canada — Montreal Olympic Pool
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• Recaps:
  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2
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You may be aware that a significant record fell last night. No, not Mexico’s 13-year-long unbeaten record at the Azteca stadium, where the altitude was no match for the alti-Jude, but the women’s 200 fly world record.

That record, set by China’s Liu Zige at the 2009 Chinese National Games lasted 16 years, eight months, and 14 days. It was the longest-standing world record in women’s swimming, the final relic of the supersuit era. It didn’t quite make it to its dancing queen era, as Abba once sang.

So what can you do in 16 years, eight months, and 14 days?

• Be born
• Qualify for the Olympic Games, finish 4th in the 400 free final and break the national record in the 4×200 free relay
• Become a quadruple national champion and break a Commonwealth and World junior record
• Win two World titles
• Win two Commonwealth titles
• Set a senior world record, overtaking two of the best female swimmers in history as you do so

What’s more, you would still have one month and four days left. Plenty of time to do something like plan a bank robbery, or run 34 marathons.

Summer McIntosh has been close before. She swam within half a second of Liu’s 2:01.81 twice last year, clocking 2:02.26 at Canadian Trials and 2:01.99 at the World Championships. She was not initially thrilled by the slightness of the margin, just 0.18 seconds, but the gap after this swim came down on the right side of the record for her.

Throughout the record’s long lifetime only one swimmer, McIntosh, has come even close to challenging it. Only five women in history have even been under 2:04 in the event – a mark that is now nearly two and a half second behind McIntosh’s world record. In fact, outside of Liu’s 2:01.81 no one other than McIntosh has been faster than Jessica Schipper‘s 2:03.41 from the 2009 World Championships.

If it was not for McIntosh, the top two performers at the end of 2009 would still be the top two performers today. No one except her has been within two seconds of Liu’s mark since it was set. Regan Smith clocked 2:03.84 for silver at the Paris Olympics and is the #4 performer in history, 2.03 seconds back from Liu, posting the fastest non-McIntosh swim since 2009.

Equivalent times (by percentage difference) in the three remaining individual supersuited world records – the men’s 200 free, men’s 800 free, and men’s 200 back – seem less of an outlier than in the 200 fly.

Equivalent Gap Between World Record And Fastest Non-McIntosh 200 Fly Swim Since Record, All LCM Super-Suited Records

• Women’s 200 fly – 2:03.84, #4 all-time (Regan Smith)
• Men’s 200 free – 1:43.70, #5 all-time (actual #5 – Luke Hobson, 1:43.73)
• Men’s 800 free – 7:39.65, #16 all-time (actual #16 – Mykhailo Romanchuk, 7:40.05)
• Men’s 200 back – 1:53.79, #10 all-time (actual #10 – Jiayu Xu, 1:53.99)

Even among those four, in terms of performances the women’s 200 fly is on another level. At the time Liu set the record, the #25 performance in history was 2:05.95, more than four seconds back. The gap between the two was 3.29%. For comparison, Gretchen Walsh‘s 100 fly world record was 2.35% clear of the #25 performance when she swam 54.33 earlier this year.

It was not as though the 200 fly was in a rut at the time of Liu’s record in 2009. A full 15 of the top 25 performances in history at the end of 2009 were set at that summer’s world championships in Rome, including eight of the top ten. There were five swimmers who clocked 2:04.50 or better in the 2009 world final, and no final since has been as fast to such depth.

Nearly 17 years later, and there have only ever been 11 swims under 2:04: two for Regan Smith (2:03.84, 2:03.87), one for Zhang Yufei (2:03.86), one for Jessica Schipper (2:03.41), two for Liu Zige (2:01.81, 2:03.90), and five for Summer McIntosh (2:01.65, 2:01.99, 2:02.26, 2:02.62, 2:03.03). There have been just 23 swims of 2:04.50 or better – five from the 2009 world final.

The winning times at the World Championships and Olympic Games paint a picture of just how far away the record had been from the field recently.

World and Olympic Winning Times, Women’s 200 Fly, 2011-2025

• 2011 World Championships – 2:05.55
• 2012 Olympic Games – 2:04.06 (OR)
• 2013 World Championships – 2:04.59
• 2015 World Championships – 2:05.56
• 2016 Olympic Games – 2:04.85
• 2017 World Championships – 2:05.26
• 2019 World Championships – 2:06.78
• 2021 Olympic Games – 2:03.86 (OR)
• 2022 World Championships – 2:05.20 *McIntosh*
• 2023 World Championships – 2:04.06 *McIntosh*
• 2024 Olympic Games – 2:03.03 (OR) *McIntosh*
• 2025 World Championships – 2:01.99 *McIntosh*

Of non-McIntosh swims, the Olympic winning times make up three of the fastest four since 2011. However, at the 2019 World Championships, the final major international meet until McIntosh made her debut, the winning time was just 2:06.78, nearly five seconds off the world record.

Since the summer of 2021, there have been 18 swims under 2:05, ten of which belong to McIntosh. Of the eight swum by others, five have been between 2:04.80 and 2:05.00.

This was not a record that was creaking before McIntosh turned her sights to the event. Four years later, it is not a record that would be creaking without her in the field. It will not take another decade and a half to see this record fall again, but once McIntosh retires – and remember, she is just 19 years old – it could be another quarter-lifetime before it belongs to someone else.