Olympic gold medalist Summer McIntosh unpacks the key to her success in multiple swimming events

Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh has revealed the reason behind her success in several swimming events. So far in her career, McIntosh has competed in several events, including the 400m freestyle, 200m medley and 400m medley.

Notably, McIntosh also competed in the backstroke and breaststroke events in professional meets. She has won several laurels in the above-mentioned events, including Olympic and World Championships medals.

A major validation of her ability to switch between these events came at the 2025 Canadian Swimming trials. She clocked world record speeds in both the 400m freestyle and 200m Individual Medley during this competition.

Speaking in an interview after her 200m IM race during the trials, the 18-year-old emphasized her performance, especially after the 800m freestyle race the day before the 200m IM. McIntosh shared that recovering from 800m free is easy for her as it is an aerobic race and doesn't consume much energy like the 200m IM or 200m butterfly.

Additionally, she also mentioned that recovery is vital for a multi-event swimmer like her. She said (via CBC Sports, 00:36 onwards):

"The freestyle, I think since it's more of an aerobic-based, or at this point, I feel like it's getting so fast, it's not much aerobic, but it's more of an aerobic-based race. So, you are not pushing your body to an absolute sprint. So, I actually find it easier to recover from the 800 rather than like 200m IM or 200m fly. But always learning how to recover between races is really important for me if I want to continue to be a multi-event swimmer."

Competing in the 800m freestyle, Summer McIntosh clocked a run time of 8:05.07s to win the race convincingly and better the previous Canadian record held by her (8:09.86s).

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Summer McIntosh makes her feelings known in her 200m butterfly race during the Canadian trials

Summer McIntosh (Image via: Getty)

Summer McIntosh expressed her feelings after her 200m butterfly performance during the 2025 Canadian Trials. McIntosh clocked 2:02.26s and was within touching distance of shattering the world record.

The Ontario native said that this performance was much better than her previous races in the trials. She expressed her happiness at clocking under 2:03 and said (via Olympics.com):

"I actually rate this race higher than my other ones. I would almost rate it higher than the 200 IM just because this world record is the hardest one to get in my personal opinion. Really happy with the 2:02 low."

Summer McIntosh added that she is proud that she can reach the proximity of this record held by Liu Zige (2:01.81s) and said that she is quite happy with her performance in this event.