2024 CANADIAN OLYMPIC & PARALYMPIC TRIALS
- May 13-19, 2024
- Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre – Toronto, Ontario
- LCM (50 meters)
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- Swimming Canada Paralympic Selection Criteria
- Psych Sheets (Updated 05/10)
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Day one of the 2024 Canadian Olympic & Paralympic Trials kicked off from Toronto tonight and already 17-year-old Summer McIntosh made her presence known in a big way.
Racing in the final of the women’s 400m free, McIntosh fired off a winning time of 3:59.06 to get to the wall first, handily defeating the field by over 9 seconds.
Runner-up status went to Julie Brousseau who touched in 4:08.12 while Julia Stojnowska also landed on the podium in 4:11.08 for bronze.
McIntosh’s effort rendered her the #1 swimmer in the world at the moment, taking the crown from Australia’s reigning Olympic champion and world record holder Ariarne Titmus. Titmus previously ranked #1 with the 3:59.13 notched at last month’s Australia Open Championships.
2023-2024 LCM Women 400 Free
Titmus
3:55.44
| 2 | Katie LEDECKY | USA | 3:58.35 | 06/16 |
| 3 | Summer McINTOSH | CAN | 3:58.37 | 07/27 |
| 4 | Erika FAIRWEATHER | NZL | 3:59.44 | 02/11 |
| 5 | Bingjie LI | CHN | 4:01.62 | 02/11 |
McIntosh’s performance overtook her prior season-best of 3:59.42 punched at the U.S. Nationals in November.
McIntosh and Titmus have been playing a cat-and-mouse game in recent history, with McIntosh taking the world record away from Titmus last year before Titmus reclaimed the mark at the 2023 World Championships.
Despite a head-turning performance, teen McIntosh told the Canadian press post-race that ‘she wasn’t happy’ with her performance.
“To be honest, I’m not happy with that”
Summer McIntosh tells me she wanted more out of her 400m freestyle swim tonight.
Posts the fastest time in the world in the event this year. Wants more. Wants to be excellent every time she swims.
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) May 13, 2024
Now in hindsight, I wonder if Summer was happy with her Olympic performance in the 400 free? She did absolutely great for silver, and raced it convincingly as compared to 2023 Worlds, showing a lot of growth and maturity, but I thought she didn’t look thrilled at the race completion, although might have just been exhausted. The Ledecky reign in 400 free is clearly over. Titmus is taking this next year off, she is 24. It will be exciting to see if Summer continues to focus on 400 free, I do believe she is more than capable of breaking Titmus’ world record in this event.
Found this online.
Her average stroke length increased 2.4% compared to her PB and World Junior Record, for the same average swimming speed over the race, despite different pacing strategies.
On the other hand, the total number of dolphin kicks decreased 32%, and the turns (5+15 m) added 2.20 s to the total race time, compared to her PB
Very interesting.
Maybe she was just trying out different strategy.
It reminds me of what Camille Muffat did in 400 in the months before London 2012.
Muffat tried several different race strategies throughout France Nationals, Mare Nostrum, and Sette Coli.
She went out super fast.
Or she backhalfed like crazy.
Or even pace.
Funnily, all strategies resulted in similar time.
It’s funny the turns haven’t quite come together yet for McIntosh which was painfully obvious in the last two turns.
Playing devil’s advocate here, but is it possible she may have purposely slowed after the 300 once she realised she was falling off pace (I think she’s commented before that she can see the clock while swimming)? Again, it’s probably just more likely that she simply got tired.
A swimmer like McIntosh has a champion mentality. Why would she purposely slow down? Doesn’t make any sense especially when McIntosh said she’s disappointed with the swim.
A quote from another newspaper: McIntosh went out fast, saying that’s “how I swim most races. Now I just have to learn how to hold on in the back half.
I’m quite glad to hear this. One of my fears after that race was that maybe she’ll be tentative next time in the front half (which imo is handing Titmus the win) but this sounds like she’ll keep at the strategy of pushing her front-end.
Agreed.
The only way to beat Titmus is to go out really fast and try to hold speed for dear life.
Can’t wait for her to spank Ledecky!
Show a little more respect for Ledecky. She is a legend! go Katie
Weird you mention Ledecky and not the Olympic/World Champion.
I agree! The Ledecky reign is over!
does anyone know her splits at 200?
1:56.05 200 split
56.03 100 split
A swimmer of her calibre and with the competition she was up against, she would not have had a full taper. A semi-taper for sure, which is why I think she is disappointed. She would still be in heavy training. It’s a super-fast time though and she will surely be around her PB in Paris. Aussie trials are four weeks away, I’m tipping Arianne for a 3.58 there, and another 3.55 in Paris. I wouldn’t discount Summer, she may well be right with her.
Yep, anyone thinking Summer will not go faster than 3.59 in Paris is not thinking. No need to show her cards today.
While I do think she’ll go faster in Paris, it is a concerning time if she’ll want to have any chance of catching Titmus for gold.
she will go 3.54.90
Summer has been a tricky swimmer to predict so far in her young career. She might have one humdrum swim & then turn around & blow the doors off in her next race(s) at the same meet. She has more prep time between trials & Paris than the Australians or Americans. So if she has “disappointing” races in Toronto that are still quite fast then I wouldn’t be too concerned.
Couldn’t agree more!
She’s fine, ignore the polarizing “she’s untapered!” and “she’s doom!”
She went out one second under WR pace at 200.
She paid for it at the end.
It’s another lesson that will make her swim better 400.
She went out faster when she broke the WR in 2023
56.46; 1:55.91; 2:55.84; 3:56.08 WR
So that’s why Summer is disappointed.
She expected to break the WR or at least be very close.