For the second time at the 2024 World Swimming Championships (25m), Canada’s Summer McIntosh celebrated a gold medal and a world record.
The 18-year-old 3x Olympic champion became the second woman to break 2:00 in the 200m butterfly on Thursday night in Budapest with a 1:59.32, lowering Mireia Belmonte’s 1:59.61 world record from this meet ten years ago at Doha 2014.
This swim follows up McIntosh’s world record in the 400m freestyle from Tuesday as she is also entered in the 400m IM and 200m backstroke where another world record could fall in the former.
“I am pretty over the moon,” McIntosh said. “Yesterday, having the day off was kind of nice to recollect myself after a crazy day one. And tomorrow I have another day off and then right back into the 400 IM so I am super excited to just keep the meet rolling.”
McIntosh swims in the United States for coach Brent Arckey at the Sarasota Sharks in central Florida as she gave Canada yet another medal this week in Budapest. McIntosh is also the first Canadian woman to win this event at the World Short Course Championships.
“I just think the Canadian team has been doing so well overall,” McIntosh said. “It’s so motivating and we all feed off each other’s energy and that’s great. We are all supportive of each other because we understand what each other is going through in these big moments. And we have little celebrations which are awesome.
“The world record means the world and I think it will continue to give me a lot of confidence to keep pushing forward in my 200m fly and in general. It was one of my biggest goals, to break the record in the 200 fly, so this is a big step forward.”
Much like the Olympics in Paris, McIntosh finished ahead of American silver medalist Regan Smith (2:01.00), who broke the American record to move to fourth all-time.
Australia’s Elizabeth Dekkers (2:02.91), who finished fourth in Paris in this event, rebounded to win bronze here for Australia’s fifth medal of the championships.
Dekkers sat in fourth place at 150 meters and out-swam American Alex Shackell (2:03.23) on the last 50 meters, as the 18-year-old from the suburbs of Indianapolis finished fourth after sitting in the top two for 150 meters. Shackell could not hang onto the pace as she moved to 21st all-time.
China’s Chen Luying (2:03.67) and Australia’s Bella Grant (2:03.91) finished fifth and sixth, with Denmark’s Helena Bach (2:04.08) and Finland’s Laura Lahtinen (2:05.71) also swimming in the championship final.