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15-Year-Old Summer McIntosh Cracks Own Canadian Record with 4:01.59 400 Free

2022 CANADIAN SWIMMING TRIALS

TUESDAY FINALS HEAT SHEET

WOMEN’S 400 FREE – FINALS:

Podium:

  1. Summer McIntosh (ESWIM) – 4:01.59
  2. Katrina Bellio (ESWIM) – 4:11.06
  3. Ella Jansen (ESWIM) – 4:11.15

15-year-old Canadian star Summer McIntosh proved tonight that she’s ready to pop off a world class swim at any time. After swimming a pedestrian 4:08.01 in prelims of the women’s 400 free this morning, McIntosh swam an aggressive race tonight, roaring to a new personal best and Canadian Record of 4:01.59.

For a moment there it looked like McIntosh might challenge Katie Ledecky‘s World Junior Record of 3:58.37, but she wasn’t quite able to keep up with that pace. Fortunately for McIntosh, she still has a long time left as a junior, in which she can work down towards that mark. If we’re comparing McIntosh to Ledecky, however, she’s well under Ledecky’s top time from when she 15, which comes in at 4:04.43.

The 15-year-old wasted no time getting after it, splitting 27.75 on the first 50, her fastest opening 50 split of her career. She kept the speed going, flipping at the 200 mark in a head-turning 1:58.28. She split 30.16 and 30.38 on the 3rd and 4th 50s, and it was at that point in the race where it looked like Ledecky’s record might just be in play. She continued to slow down through the back half, however, splitting 1:01.43 and 1:01.88 on the 3rd and 4th 100s.

The swim shattered the Canadian Record of 4:02.42, which McIntosh set at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics last summer, where she finished 4th in finals. On top of the Canadian Record, McIntosh is now the #11 performer all-time in the event. Here is the split comparison between McIntosh’s swim tonight and her previous Canadian Record swim from the Olympic finals last summer:

Split Summer McIntosh – 2022 Canadian Trials Summer McIntosh – Tokyo 2020 Olympic Final (Previous Canadian Record)
50m 27.75 27.87
100m 29.99 30.42
150m 30.16 30.49
200m 30.38 30.54
250m 30.60 30.41
300m 30.83 30.78
350m 31.17 31.04
400m 30.71 30.87
FINAL TIME 4:01.59 4:02.42

As the splits show, McIntosh was faster on each of the first four 50 splits of the race. She was also just a hair faster on the final 100.

Outside of the record, McIntosh rose to 3rd in the world this year in the event, behind only Ariarne Titmus and Katie Ledecky, who also happen to be the two fastest performers all-time in the event.

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bobthebuilderrocks
2 years ago

Does anyone know who coaches her now?

Swimmerfromjapananduk
2 years ago

Thought she’d break 4 ngl, but the way she is going, a sub 4 is not hard for her

Walter
Reply to  Swimmerfromjapananduk
2 years ago

“Not hard?” Give the girl a break.

Yozhik
2 years ago

Hard to say comparing these very similar looking splits of two races that stay 8 months apart were the unused reserve is. It is unlikely that her first 200 can be much faster. It’s already not far from her personal best. We have to see how her 200 looks like now and if there was any her improvement as a sprinter. Maybe the last 100 will be stronger with the taper assuming that she didn’t pay much attention to this meet.. But it should be very impressive taper effect of the size of 2 sec.

TheJudga
Reply to  Yozhik
2 years ago

I disagree. I think if there is a huge opportunity to be faster the first 200m. Typically with distance swimmers you see their front end improving as they gain more muscle.

I also think Summer’s 200 free pb will improve this meet, but not by a ton. However, at Worlds with a full, end of season taper, we will see a 1:54-1:55 200 free and a 3:59 low 400 free.

SwimElite99
2 years ago

Wow. I reckon sub-4:00 is not out of the question for Worlds. Exciting times! Crazy to think she’s nearly 3 seconds faster than Ledecky was at this age (and also has things like a 4:29 400IM under her belt).

Last edited 2 years ago by SwimElite99
PFA
Reply to  SwimElite99
2 years ago

is she doing the 4 IM here?

Troyy
Reply to  PFA
2 years ago

She’s entered in 200/400/800FR, 200 FL and 400 IM.

PFA
Reply to  Troyy
2 years ago

She could actually take a shot at the world record in the 4 IM not saying it’s going down but definitely could and also throw down a monster 2 fly as well.

Yozhik
Reply to  SwimElite99
2 years ago

Katie Ledecky being 4 months younger than Summer McIntosh is now swam at 4:04.34 her first half of 800 race. That is the time you are using. We can only guess what her time would be should she had 400 event in her program but the difference between her 400 individual races and first half of 800 race at the same meet is averaging 5-6 seconds.
I’m pretty sure that Katie Ledecky at the age of 15 years and 4 months was already at the 4min level if not bellow. Next year at Barcelona she improved her personal best at 800 by less than a second and was under 4min at 400. So I think that my estimate of… Read more »

M d e
Reply to  SwimElite99
2 years ago

It’s always hardest to be first. Ledecky has shown these girls what was possible, and now they will try take it to another level.

Mediocre Swammer
Reply to  SwimElite99
2 years ago

It looks like Katie did that 400 time listed as the opening 400 split of her 800 at the Olympics. So, if she’d made the team in the 400, I imagine she would have been faster.

NB1
2 years ago

She’s amazing. The Janet Evans of the 2020s

swimfast
Reply to  NB1
2 years ago

The Janet Evans of the 2020s is the same “Janet Evans” of the 2010s. Ledecky is still around and dominating everybody else not named Titmus lol

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Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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