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TORONTO – Summer McIntosh put an exclamation point on the midway mark of the Olympic & Paralympic Swimming Trials, Presented by Bell, annihilating her own world record in the women’s 400-m individual medley Thursday.   

It was already the third qualifying time of the week for the 17-year-old phenom, who opened the meet with a win in the 400 freestyle Monday before triumphing in the 200 free on Day 2. 

The competition runs through Sunday at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, with the Canadian teams for Paris 2024 set to be announced officially at the end of the final evening. 

The two-time world champion in the 400 IM, McIntosh was just under world-record pace at mid-race and picked it up in the breaststroke to open a two-second gap with 100 metres to go.  

She touched the wall in 4:24.38, almost a second and a half under the previous world standard of 4:25.87 she had set at last year’s world championships trials, also at the TPASC. 

Finishing in second place was 18-year-old Ella Jansen from the High Performance Centre – Ontario, who missed the Olympic qualifying time of 4:38.53 by 35 hundredths of a second. 

“I was really just focusing on having fun with the race and kind of taking it 100 metres at a time because it’s a pretty mentally challenging race,” said McIntosh, a Torontonian who trains with the Sarasota Sharks in Florida.  

“I wasn’t really focused on the time. I mean, obviously, I’m very grateful that I was able to break my world record,” she said. “Overall I’m really happy.” 

McIntosh said the support from the home crowd helped push her towards the finish line. 

“With so many Canadians in the stands, I can feel their support and I can hear them cheering during my race and it really keeps me going. I mean, if they weren’t there, I don’t think I would have the 4:25 world record in the first place, let alone this one tonight.  

“Whenever I get to race in front of a big crowd, I think it really gives me a lift. Just that complete adrenaline rush is awesome.” 

Four other athletes qualified under Priority 1 to be nominated to the Olympic Team as first and second-place swimmers achieving the qualifying time on Thursday, including Toronto’s Josh Liendo and Yuri Kisil of Calgary’s Cascade Swim Club in the men’s 100 free, as well as Kylie Masse of La Salle, Ont., and Regan Rathwell from Greater Ottawa Kingfish in the women’s 200 backstroke.  

For his part, as the third-place finisher in the men’s 100 free, HPC-Vancouver’s Finlay Knox qualified to be considered for nomination as a relay-only swimmer for the second time this week. 

Fourth-place finisher Javier Acevedo from HPC-Ontario, who posted an individual qualifying time in the 100 back on Day 2, will also be considered for nomination for the 4×100 free.  

Up to 12 relay-only positions will be filled based on the combined times of the Top 4 in each potential relay event. While Swimming Canada has qualified all seven Olympic relays, relay-only swimmers will be nominated in priority order based on this ranking. 

Liendo won the 100 free in 47.55 to tie his personal best that earned him a bronze medal at the 2022 worlds. It is the second fastest time in Canadian history, trailing only Brent Hayden’s mark of 47.27, which has stood since 2009. 

Kisil clocked 48.19, Knox followed in 48.29 – also under the qualifying time – and Acevedo rounded out the Top 4 in 48.58. 

“Just execute. I was more focused on execution,” said Liendo, who, along with Kisil, was part of the Canadian relay that finished fourth and missed bronze by 0.60 seconds at Tokyo 2020. “I can usually just go and like, swim it out, but I really wanted to make sure I executed my details.  

“I wasn’t kind of over-swimming it, just kind of want to stay calm, be in that moment, so I think I handled that pretty well.” 

Kisil, a 28-year-old from Calgary who made his Olympic debut at Rio 2016, was thrilled to get another shot after coming so close to the podium in the Japanese capital. Thursday’s final was the second-best performance ever for the veteran, who has battled injuries since Tokyo and took a long break away from training.  

“We’ve been hungry for this. Ever since we got fourth in the last Olympics, we weren’t happy with that. We want more. We want better,” Kisil said.  

In the women’s 200 back final, Masse, already qualified with Wednesday’s 100 back win, cruised to victory in 2:06.24. It was her best performance in the event since she claimed Olympic silver in a Canadian record time of 2:05.42 in Tokyo. 

Rathwell, a 20-year-old from Ashton, Ont., who has overcome a string of injuries in recent years, followed in a personal best 2:09.38. 

“We’ll have to take a technical look at it with the coaches and the video and check my splits and everything, but I really can’t complain with the last two days,” said Masse, a two-time Olympian and four-time Olympic medallist. 

“It’s a massive step forward from where I was last year and I know I still have work to do. And I know my competitors around the world are putting in the work and they still have trials to come, but I’m just focusing on myself and looking to build off the last two days.” 

“Every swim I do now is a bonus after being out of the water for so long. I’m really appreciating the sport more and more and just doing it for the enjoyment,” said Rathwell. “Halfway through the race I was kind of like, OK, you know what, I feel good, let’s give this a real go.” 

In the last Olympic program final of the evening, Timothé Barbeau from Neptune Natation in Montreal won the men’s 800 free in a personal best 8:00.61, over the qualifying time. 

In Para swimming, veteran Aurélie Rivard from Club de Natation Région de Québec and newcomer Sebastian Massabie from the Pacific Sea Wolves Swim Club posted “A” qualifying times to put themselves in position to be nominated to the Paralympic Team (subject to slot allocations of 15 women and seven men).  

Rivard, who had already swum a qualifying time in the 400 freestyle the night before, won Thursday’s women’s 100 free multiclass final in 1:00.19. 

The 28-year-old from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., is the reigning two-time Paralympic champion in the S10 class and set the world record of 58.14 in Tokyo. 

“I’m a little disappointed with the time tonight because I was hoping to go faster,” said Rivard, who is also the reigning three-time world champion in the event. “But, honestly, it was still a great experience. I’m looking forward to working on the details that I missed tonight to do better this summer.” 

Also in the women’s 100 free multiclass final, while they fell short of the qualifying time, two athletes set national marks, including Tess Routliffe of Montreal’s HPC-Quebec in the S7 category (1:12.95) and Shelby Newkirk of the Saskatoon Lasers in the S6 class (1:13.68).   

In the men’s 100 free, Massabie, a 19-year-old from Surrey, B.C., triumphed in 1:25.07, after setting a Canadian S4 record of 1:23.88 in the morning preliminaries. 

Reid Maxwell from the Edmonton Keyano Swim Club was over the S8 qualifying time despite setting a national standard of 1:00.23. 

A total of 857 athletes from 151 clubs across the country are competing to represent Canada at the Olympic Games (July 26-Aug. 11) and Paralympic Games (Aug. 28-Sept. 8) in Paris. Teams for the Junior Pan Pacific Championships (Aug. 21-24) in Canberra, Australia, and Open Water Junior World Championships (Sept. 6-8) in Alghero, Italy, are also being selected. 

Preliminary heats are at 9:30 a.m. ET each day, with finals sessions set for 6 p.m.