Swimming | The Heartbreaking End of Summer McIntosh

(Paris) It’s hard to fault Summer McIntosh for anything. She’s a prolific medalist, winning four medals, including three golds, in Paris. However, her fourth-place finish in the women’s 4×100-meter medley relay on Sunday night will leave her wanting more until the Los Angeles Games in four years.

On this last evening of swimming at the Paris La Défense Arena, Kylie Masse, Sophie Angus and Maggie Mac Neil swam for their country, their entourage, but above all for their teammate Summer McIntosh.

The 17-year-old prodigy was just one medal short of matching the mark set by speed skater Cindy Klassen, who holds the record for most medals won by a Canadian athlete at a single Games, set in Turin in 2006.

The Canadian quartet, however, came up short, by 68 hundredths. And if McIntosh was unable to bite into a fifth medal, it was because of her two lengths in the freestyle. The Canadian acknowledged this from the start of the game in the mixed zone.

“I was tired,” she admitted, “but everyone was and we train for that. We usually have the tools to find options,” she said, distressed by the feeling of having let her team down.

Her three teammates kept Canada in the top three in each relay. In the butterfly, Mac Neil propelled her team with an excellent first 50 metres of 25.39 seconds, enough to put McIntosh in second place for the final quarter of the race. However, the Ontarian was overtaken in the last 25 metres by Australian Mollie O’Callaghan and Chinese Junxuan Yang. She was clearly short on resources on a distance that is not one of her specialties.

McIntosh, in shock, had still not removed his swimming cap and goggles 20 minutes after finishing his race. “I really wanted to leave everything I had in the pool, but the result didn’t come.”

At the end of her performance, as the results were displayed on the stadium’s giant screen, McIntosh curled up at the end of her hallway. Veteran Kylie Masse came to comfort her.

“When we swim, we only focus on our lane. But we know our opponents, we knew it would be fast,” said Masse, to reassure his young friend.

As Mac Neil recalled, however, “it was our best chance to get on the podium and we came close. But we also knew the Chinese were very strong.” It was also the Tokyo 100m butterfly champion’s last Olympic appearance.

Another fourth place for Harvey

Even though she didn’t wear her swimsuit on that closing night, Mary-Sophie Harvey still had hopes of becoming an Olympic medalist. In the preliminary rounds the day before, Canada had secured its spot in the final. Harvey’s butterfly of 57.68 seconds helped her team win its heat.

So, even if she watched the race from the stands, she would have inherited a medal if her teammates had performed well on Sunday.

“I have a little bitter taste, I think I have a record of fourth places,” said the Quebecer, holding back her tears so as not to ruin the makeup with the image of Canada on her cheeks.

Indeed, for the fourth time in these Games, Harvey finished just off the podium. She suffered the same fate in the 200m freestyle, the 4 x 200m freestyle relay and the 4 x 100m freestyle.

Sunday evening, however, had the effect of a hammer blow, because she will have to go through another Olympic cycle before hoping to achieve her dream.

“It’s tough. I’m not going to lie, it was tough,” she said before taking a break. “It was a similar feeling to the 4×200 freestyle, even though I knew I wasn’t going to swim that night. I just felt like giving them a little push to make them go faster. I think we deserved that medal.”

Fifth place for the men’s team

The Canadian men’s relay team finished seventh in the 4 x 100m medley in Tokyo in 2021.

The fifth-place finish by swimmers Blake Tierney, Finlay Knox, Ilya Kharun and Josh Liendo was an improvement. In truth, there was almost no chance of a medal for Canada, given that the race involved the Chinese, Americans and French.

By the second length on Knox’s back, Canada was in fifth place. And that never changed.

They swam better than the Australians, Germans and Dutch, but the leading group had pulled too far ahead. Even Kharun, in the butterfly, and Liendo, in the crawl, both medallists at these Games, were unable to close the gap.

Canada’s last medal in this event dates back to the Seoul Games in 1988.

For the records, the bronze medal won by France allowed the sensation Léon Marchand to add a fifth medal to his collection.

The balance sheet

Canada will have won eight medals in the pool at these Games. Summer McIntosh, Ilya Kharun, Kylie Masse and Josh Liendo shared three gold medals, two silver and three bronze.

McIntosh, revealed three years ago in Tokyo, was the spark plug for Canada with half of the harvest belonging to him.

“Obviously, I’m very happy with my result. I’ve had the craziest days of my life here. I’m trying to make it happen, because that’s what I worked for. It only happens once every four years. I’m already thinking about LA, to be honest,” said the winner who climbed the top step of the podium three times during the week.

In Tokyo in 2021, Canada won six medals. In Rio in 2016, six as well. Previously, in London in 2012, only three.

The Paris Games will therefore have been the most productive since those in Los Angeles in 1984, where Canada won 10 medals, but in a context of boycott, it must be remembered.

Kylie Masse, the first Canadian swimmer to win at least one medal at three consecutive Games, isn’t sure what the future holds for her, but the 28-year-old hopes her team can continue that momentum in 2028, with or without her. “You have to keep the momentum going. When you have a team like that around you, pushing you and motivating you, you obviously want to keep getting better. You just have to keep encouraging each other.”