Canadian superstar Summer McIntosh has announced plans to make a coaching change prior to the 2028 Olympics.
McIntosh, 18, says that this will be her last season training under head coach Brent Arckey with the Sarasota Sharks, and that she’s eyeing joining a pro team later this year for the build-up to the LA Olympics.
Although McIntosh hasn’t finalized her future plans, she is looking at Bob Bowman and the pro group at the University of Texas as a leading option.
The idea of training with Bowman, who guided Michael Phelps to the greatest Olympic career of all-time while racing a very similar program to McIntosh, appeals to her.
“Bob coaching the greatest of all time — swimmer Michael Phelps — being able to do all those events is definitely an attraction,” McIntosh said in an exclusive interview with CBC Sports, also mentioning that Bowman trains the best male swimmer in the world currently, Leon Marchand, who won Olympic gold in Paris in the same three events McIntosh did.
“As I move forward to my career, I still want to continue to develop other events.
“Just to reflect on the past almost three years I’ve been in Sarasota, I’ve grown so much as a person and a swimmer. Coach Brent really pushed me to be the best swimmer I could be. I will forever cherish my years here. It’s been a great run.”
McIntosh confirmed that she’ll continue training with Arckey through this summer’s World Championships in Singapore.
She is planning on taking a visit to the University of Texas in March.
She added that while academics are important to her and she plans on taking classes, she will be be training and competing as a professional and not in the NCAA.
“I’m figuring out a pro team that I could join,” McIntosh told CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux. “The NCAA is a great option but for me personally, I think a pro team makes more sense because it has a lot more flexibility and it’s a lot more individual.”
Arckey said he couldn’t think of a better place for McIntosh to develop her career than with Bowman.
“If you can find me a better place then I’m all ears,” Arckey said. “It’s a great opportunity. I’ve been supportive of this the entire time. I want to make sure she’s going somewhere where she’s going to get better and spread her wings. It’s only a reflection on us.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work with Bob and I have nothing but respect for Bob. When Summer started talking about all of this, this was certainly one of the options that we threw out there.”
After growing up at the Etobicoke Swim Club and then spending time training at the High Performance Centre – Ontario in Toronto, McIntosh made the transition to train full-time with the Sarasota Sharks in the fall of 2022.
Having joined the Sharks on a permanent basis as the reigning world champion in the women’s 200 fly and 400 IM, McIntosh has had incredible success under Arckey, which kicked off by breaking the first two world records of her career at the 2023 Canadian Swimming Trials, doing so in the women’s 400 free (3:56.08) and 400 IM (4:25.87).
She went on to defend her world titles in the 200 fly and 400 IM at the 2023 World Championships, and added a pair of bronze medals in the women’s 200 free and 4×100 medley relay.
At last summer’s Paris Olympics, McIntosh had a dominant performance, winning three gold medals in the women’s 200 fly (2:03.03), 200 IM (2:06.56) and 400 IM (4:27.07), setting new Olympic and World Junior Records in the two former, and adding a silver medal in the 400 free.
A few months earlier at the Canadian Olympic Trials, she broke her world record in the 400 IM by more than a second, clocking 4:24.38 to make her the fastest swimmer ever by 1.98 seconds.
McIntosh capped off 2024 by winning three gold medals and setting three world records at the Short Course World Championships in Budapest, doing so in the women’s 400 free (3:50.25), 200 fly (1:59.32) and 400 IM (4:15.48). She also won silver in the 200 back and bronze in the women’s 4×100 free relay.
A NEW EVENT PROGRAM?
McIntosh also said she plans on racing five individual events at the 2025 World Championships.
After only racing the 400 free, 200 fly and 400 IM at the 2022 World Championships, she added the 200 free to her schedule for the 2023 Worlds.
At the Paris Olympics, McIntosh dropped the 200 free from her lineup and added the 200 IM.
Though she doesn’t have her schedule set in stone, it sounds as though McIntosh will keep her Olympic lineup—400 free, 200 fly, 200 IM and 400 IM—and add either the 800 free or 200 back, with the 200 free presenting a scheduling conflict.
McIntosh is only a few weeks removed from becoming the second woman under the 8:10 barrier in the 800 free, clocking 8:09.86 at the Southern Zone South Sectionals in mid-February. That swim has fans clamoring for her to take on world record holder Katie Ledecky on the international stage.
“I definitely want to be doing five individual events. What that looks like, I don’t know exactly yet,” McIntosh said.
“Summer can do whatever she wants in the sport. She’s got the gifts to do that. She trains and works really hard. It’s up to her on what she wants to do,” Arckey said.
THE TEXAS PRO GROUP
Bowman made the stunning decision to take over as the Director of Swimming and head men’s coach at Texas just two days after leading the Arizona State men’s team to their first NCAA title last season.
With Bowman’s arrival, the Longhorn men’s team has been rebuilt in a hurry, arguably becoming the favorites to win the NCAA title this season after they were 7th in 2024.
And for McIntosh’s purposes, some of Bowman’s pro swimmers have followed him in Austin, including Regan Smith, Simone Manuel and Paige Madden on the women’s side, while the male pro team includes Marchand (though he’s training in Australia at the moment), Shaine Casas, Carson Foster and Chase Kalisz, not to mention a stacked group of NCAA swimmers headlined by Olympic champion Hubert Kos.
I wish all the best for her.
I heard summer is interested in the SMU pro group I’m Dallas. I predict she goes somewhere in Texas but the wind might blow her up north to the mustangs👀👀
no
No no no
On the DL I heard Summer McIntosh has been talking to SMU. She says she wants to join SMU Kappa and swim to have a good swim-social balance.
My wild card pick for where she ends up is Alabama since she seems to like their football team/has a bunch of friends there.
She would certainly be the ‘big fish’ in that pond, but I don’t know if that’s the fit that I see for her.
Go to Vancouver. It’s nice here. We’ve got good sushi and lululemon
it’s really scary to imagine what times she can post if she gets as even just half good at underwaters as the rest of bowman’s students. 200fly wr definitely going down, and it won’t be alone
Medal wise it definitely makes more sense for the 800 free, even someone of McIntosh’s caliber will be facing a real uphill battle against McKeown + Smith while the 800 free is basically free gold at this point
The last time Bowman assembled a team like this, it imploded. NBAC anyone? I think Summer would be better off training in Europe with Vergnoux who knows a thing or two about training women who can swim everything fast (Mireia Belmonte) or at St. Peters Western under Boxall. Her dad is a millionaire. They can afford to send her overseas.
I get the impression boxall’s training is pretty polarising. There’s honestly no need to move herself halfway across the world to somewhere she wouldn’t have as much opportunity to take part in international competitions and deal with jet lag every time she returns home for trials. Bowman honestly seems like the best fit from every perspective.