Summer McIntosh Eyeing Change of Scenery, Fifth Event for LA 2028
Canadian Olympic champion Summer McIntosh is eyeing a fifth event to add to her program at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. She’ll also soon shift her training base away from Sarasota, Florida, as part of preparing for those games in three years.
McIntosh told CBC Sports Friday that she’s looking to add a fifth individual event. McIntosh won gold in the 200 butterfly, 200 individual medley and 400 individual medley plus silver in the 400 freestyle at the Paris Olympics. She owns world junior records in all those events plus the 200 free, which she swam and earned a bronze medal in at the 2023 World Championships. McIntosh won silver in the 200 back at the World Short-Course Championships last December, and the 800 free is also on the table.
“I definitely want to be doing five individual events. What that looks like, I don’t know exactly yet,” she said.
Where she’ll be training is also a question. Swimming World’s reigning World Female Swimmer of the Year will split from Sarasota Sharks coach Brent Arckey after the 2025 World Aquatics Championships, though it’s a move that seems amicable. “Coach Brent really pushed me to be the best swimmer I could be,” McIntosh said. “I will forever cherish my years here. It’s been a great run.”
McIntosh is looking for a pro group to join. She will visit the University of Texas in March to see if she’s a fit with coach Bob Bowman’s program. Bowman is the head coach of the Longhorn’s men’s team and runs a pro group that he has brought over from Arizona State, where he trained the likes of Regan Smith and Leon Marchand ahead of Paris. McIntosh is not looking to swim collegiately, however.
McIntosh was born in Toronto and swam at Swimming Canada’s High Performance Center – Ontario ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, for which she qualified before her 15th birthday. She relocated to Sarasota after Tokyo.
Watch the full CBC Sports interview here.
