Summer McIntosh loves to compete and loves to win. It's the life of a ...

PARIS—It’s not that Summer McIntosh expected to win, though she was expected to win. It’s not that Summer McIntosh is used to winning, even though she won. This was her first Olympic gold, in the 400-metre individual medley. Nobody challenged Canada’s 17-year-old phenom; she was in control the whole race.

And after she touched the wall, McIntosh smiled and waved to her mom and dad and sister in the front row. When she stood on the podium, she smiled and  took a deep, "wow this is something" breath before singing the anthem in both English and French, the way she learned it in school. But when she hugged her mother Jill and her father Greg and her sister Brooke, Summer wasn’t the one crying.

“I mean, I still feel like I'm just my 10-year-old self,” said McIntosh, the medal around her neck. “I’m just trying to solidify all those dreams I had growing up as a kid, and I (plan on) being in the sport for as long as I can do it.”

It’s like she was made for this. She said she was super happy and she called it all surreal, but she handled it like it was just her life, because it is. Summer was asked if she felt relief when she delivered as the favourite. She said “absolutely not.”

This was definitely her race. She swam a controlled four minutes, 27.71 seconds and holds the world record of 4:24.38. The first time the Canadian program spotted her, she was 12 at a national camp and her then-coach Kevin Thorburn — who died suddenly in 2020 — of the Etobicoke Swim Club said to Swimming Canada honcho John Atkinson that she’d swim the 1,500 free if Tokyo was held in 2020, but that the 400 IM was the race she could succeed in.

It was striking how much talk of longevity there was around this 17-year-old who is somehow competing in her second Olympics. Her coach, Florida-based Brent Arckey, was asked about Summer’s strong grasp on her emotions and he mentioned her short but rich racing experience, her great family, her media training, everything she’s been taught and what he called the best part, which is that she’s open to learning.

“If you have a teenager that's willing to learn and learn how to manage all that stuff, this is the end result for longevity,” said Arckey. “I think the burnout thing is when you stop having success. And if you love the process of trying to find things to get better, I think longevity happens, if that makes sense. So she's interested in finding the things that she can get better at. And I think that keeps it fresh and interesting.

“She knows how to manage all of this — knows when to turn it on, turn it off, be a kid and be a champion.”

She did seem comfortable being a champion. McIntosh won silver in the titanic 400 free to start this meet, and now a gold. She still has the 200 fly here, the 200 IM and the 4x200 relay. You can bet she wants to win, too. She has always preferred it to the alternative.

“She loves to compete,” said teammate Mary-Sophie Harvey, who swam to a surprisingly strong fourth place in the 200 free after not qualifying for the final at the 2023 worlds. “And I remember in Tokyo she came fourth in the 400 free and she was so angry. And I loved it because I was like, you're 14. It was so amazing. And I knew, like, from that moment.”

That’s the thing. You have to swim the races and manage the schedule — the post-race schedule jumbled Canada’s preferred post-race protocol for McIntosh, with a victory ceremony very close to the race, changing her schedule for a cool-down swim and media — but none of this is a surprise.

The question now — as this 17-year-old tries to match Aussie powerhouse Ariarne Titmus stroke for stroke, or controls an Olympic final and wins by 5.69 seconds — is whether she could be our Ledecky, our Krisztina Egerszegi, our record-setting multi-Olympics star. Penny Oleksiak’s seven Olympic medals remains the national mark, but Oleksiak hasn’t quite maintained a steady streak across the sky, because it’s so very hard. McIntosh is chasing everybody but Michael Phelps, starting now.

And here, she’s so comfortable. She said before the race that she is more relaxed here than she was as a 14-year-old in Tokyo because her family can be here, and the crowd energizes her. She attributed her world-record pace through the first 200 metres to being jazzed by the atmosphere. Her mother, Jill Horstead, was an all-American, and McIntosh’s love for swimming is clearly tied to her love of her mom.

And she loves this, and that’s where it all starts. Before the race, Arckey gave her his simplest, truest advice. He said, “Do the thing that makes you the happiest, and make sure you're proud of whatever effort you've given.” Summer McIntosh is 17 years old, and an Olympic champion. She did both.