Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh claimed the first gold medal of her just-burgeoning career Monday night with a dominating victory in the 400-meter individual medley at the Paris Olympics.
The 17-year-old McIntosh collected her first medal of any color on the opening night of swimming, taking a silver in the 400 freestyle behind Ariarne Titmus — and ahead of Katie Ledecky.
Now, McIntosh has the most prized color of all.
“I try to take every event very individually and just do my work, but starting off for me — getting on the podium — is definitely a great way to start,” McIntosh said. “You try to continue to get better and better.”
She pushed the pace hard through the first half of the grueling race — the butterfly and backstroke legs — to leave everyone in her wake except American Katie Grimes.
McIntosh was under her own world-record pace, but couldn't keep it going. She touched in 4 minutes, 27.71 seconds, more than three seconds off the mark of 4:24.38 she set at the Canadian trials in May.
But it was more than enough to blow away the field in the Olympic final.
McIntosh seemed to take it all in stride. Maybe it's because she competed at the Tokyo Olympics at age 14, so she sort of feels like a veteran now.
“Every single time I get to race on the world stage, I learn more and more about handling mentally and physically and emotionally and trying not to get too high or too low,” McIntosh said.
She's got a grueling schedule in Paris which includes two more individual races — the 200 butterfly and 200 IM.
There are no plans to celebrate just yet.
“I mean, obviously I’m super happy with this gold,” McIntosh said. “But now I’m all about the 200 fly on day five.”
Grimes, who is also swimming the open water event in Paris, held on to claim the silver in 4:33.40. The Americans also grabbed the bronze when Emma Weyant touched in 4:34.93.