BUDAPEST, Hungary – Summer McIntosh set a world record in the first race, and Canada kept building from there to finish with four medals on Day 1 of the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m).
McIntosh’s 400-metre freestyle time of 3:50.25 Tuesday evening at the Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary, was the fastest ever by a woman in the short course pool. It’s her first world short-course gold medal and first international gold in the 400 free. Then at the conclusion of the session, she received a call notifying her she’d won the Northern Star (formerly Lou Marsh) award as Canada’s top athlete for the year.
“I still don’t think stuff like this ever fully sets in, but we’ve just got to keep it rolling. There’s been so many other amazing swims tonight for Team Canada and this is just Day 1. The next couple days of racing should be awesome and we’ll just try to keep the momentum going,” said McIntosh, who won her first long-course world gold medals in this pool at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships.
McIntosh’s time also set an Americas record as well as a world junior record for the 18-year-old. It was one of six world records to fall Tuesday, with American Gretchen Walsh lowering the 50-m butterfly mark twice then being part of Team USA’s record in in the 4×100-m freestyle relay.
“I absolutely love this pool. It holds so many memories for me back in 2022 so to be back here after a lot has changed since then is kind of cool and it’s definitely a very fast pool as well. To set the tone it’s always amazing to get Day 1 started off right,” said McIntosh, who trains with Brent Arckey at the Sarasota (Fla.) Sharks.
Meanwhile, Mary-Sophie Harvey took bronze in the 400 free in a time personal best time of 3:54.88 behind Australian Lani Pallister (3:53.73). It’s the first international individual medal at a major international event for Harvey, who had four fourth-place finishes at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“It feels a little surreal. It’s always been a dream of mine. For years I was like, ‘the relay swimmer,’ and it feels really great to finally step on that podium individually,” said Harvey, who trains at Montreal’s CAMO Club. “To say that I’ve done it for the first time and I’m 25, I think it just shows that you can still dream later in life. And I think it’s just the beginning of a good week.”
It was a triple for Harvey, who helped the women’s 4×100 free relay to bronze, and also finished fourth in the 200 individual medley in a personal best time of 2:04.30.
In the men’s 200 IM, Finlay Knox of Okotoks, Alta., returned to the podium with bronze in the 200 IM.
Knox set a Canadian record 1:50.90 to finish third, just 0.02 behind Italy’s Alberto Razzetti. American Shaine Casas won in a championship and Americas record 1:49.51.
“Post-Olympics, everyone’s in different spots, and I know myself, I took a lot longer of a break than I usually do,” said Knox, the reigning long-course champion in the event. “Going into this competition, I wasn’t maybe as fit as I should be, but the overarching thing with all competitions is if you’re there mentally. I made sure to go in there mentally as tough as I could be, and put down the best performance I could on the night. It was a little long on the touch, two one-hundredths off silver, but to get back on the podium at the first major competition since the Olympics, I’m pretty happy.”
The University of British Columbia student has been juggling his studies at the meet, writing an exam in exercise management the night before.
“I made sure to hit the books when I was home at the hotel, but also making sure to recover, and then get the exam done. Once the exam was done, full focus on to the racing,” said Knox, who trains with Scott Talbot at the High Performance Centre – Vancouver. “I think I executed that pretty well.”
The women’s relay medal was a pleasant surprise to cap the night. With the team being selected based on individual events only, there were no relay-only swimmers on the roster. Veteran medley and breaststroke swimmer Sydney Pickrem and rookie breaststroker Alexanne Lepage stepped up alongside backstroker Ingrid Wilm to help the team advance along with Penny Oleksiak. Harvey and McIntosh then joined Wilm and Oleksiak in the final and the team combined for bronze with a time of 3:28.44.
Harvey led off in a personal best 52.40, while McIntosh (51.81) and Wilm (52.22) delivered their best-ever relay splits, Wilm for the second time of the day on her fifth swim of the day. Oleksiak then did what she does best, closing in 52.01 to match her best-ever relay split from the Windsor 2016 edition of these championships.
“We almost scratched that relay. It’s awesome that all the girls just banded together and we came up with something really good,” said Oleksiak. “It seriously, truly was a team effort. We didn’t know who we were going to have in the morning on it and in our final women’s team meeting, we had Sydney, our breaststroker and our backstroker pull up. It’s just awesome to see that. We all wanted it and we all achieved it.”
In other action Tuesday, Ilya Kharun advanced through his semifinal in the 50 butterfly with a time of 21.93, good for third seed in Wednesday’s final. It was the Montreal native’s second time under 22 seconds for the day, as he lowered his Canadian record to 21.84 in his morning heat.
Wilm (55.83) and Kylie Masse (56.06) advanced through the 100-m backstroke semis in third and fifth spots. Masse won the long-course world championship in the distance here in 2022.
Also in the morning heats, Wilm (26.36 in 50 fly), Tristan Jankovics (1:53.81 in 200 IM) and Timothe Barbeau (15:02.76 in 1,500 free) swam personal bests.
It’s the first world championships for Barbeau, who also represented Canada at last year’s Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
The six-day meet continues Wednesday. Fans can watch a comprehensive stream of finals on CBC Gem and https://www.cbc.ca/sports Tuesday through Friday, beginning at approximately 11:25 a.m. ET each day. Anastasia Bucsis will host, with Rio 2016 Olympic swimming medallist Brittany MacLean providing analysis. Rob Snoek will call play-by-play of the races, joined by MacLean as colour analyst. The stream will also be available with international commentators Saturday and Sunday beginning at 11:30 a.m. All six days of preliminaries will also be available with international commentary beginning at 3 a.m. ET each day.
CBC TV will feature a highlight show Saturday from 4-6 p.m. ET with top performances from the first five days of competition voiced by Snoek and MacLean. The following Saturday, Dec. 21., will feature Day 6 highlights from 1-2 p.m. ET.
Swimming Canada and @cbcolympics will also be posting content across their digital platforms, including a live post-finals show on CBC Sports YouTube hosted by MacLean and on-site reporter Devin Heroux.
Full results: https://www.omegatiming.com/2024/world-aquatics-swimming-championships-25m-live-results