‘Insanity’: Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh dominates Birmingham pool

A star was born in Birmingham this morning, with a 15-year-old winning the women’s 400m individual medley final by a huge margin.

A star was born in Birmingham this morning, with 15-year-old Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh winning the women’s 400m individual medley final by a huge margin.

The teenage prodigy secured Canada’s first gold medal of the 2022 Commonwealth Games by registering a blistering time of 4:29.01 in Saturday morning’s race, finishing 7.77 seconds ahead of Australian Kiah Melverton in second. Scotland’s Katie Shanahan placed third.

Stream Over 50 Sports Live & On-Demand with Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >

It was more than three seconds faster than her winning time at the recent world championships in Budapest, ranking as the third-fastest 400m individual medley swim ever.

Not only did McIntosh topple her own personal best at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, but she also broke the all-time Commonwealth Games and Canadian records.

And she can’t even legally drive in her own country yet.

Summer McIntosh of Team Canada. Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

“I’ve been working on a lot of stuff in training so I can execute my 400m IM better than I did at the worlds, because I had so much room for improvement — and I still do,” she said.

At last month’s world championships, McIntosh won the women’s 200m butterfly final with a Canadian record and junior world record time of 2:05.20. She also became the first Canadian to win two gold medals at a world aquatics championships.

However, the rising star has withdrawn from the 200m butterfly event in Birmingham, allowing her to focus on other events.

GOLD FOR CANADA 🇨🇦

Summer McIntosh, 15, has done it again. She breaks the Commonwealth Games record in the 400IM to win gold.

4:29.01

That’s now World Championship gold and Commonwealth gold in this event, one month apart. Extraordinary swimming continues for Summer. pic.twitter.com/voHgsXoaCY

— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) July 29, 2022

15-year-old Summer McIntosh just went 4:29.01 in the 400 IM to become the 3rd fastest performer of all time...insanity y'all 😵‍💫 pic.twitter.com/4t4wdZbLJQ

— Kyle Sockwell (@kylesockwell) July 29, 2022

Summer McIntosh didn’t only set a Commonwealth Games and Canadian record with that 400m IM final.

She beat the silver medalist by 7.77 seconds.

🥇🇨🇦McIntosh - 4:29.01
🥈🇦🇺Melverton - 4:36.76

Astonishing stuff.

— Ben Steiner (@BenSteiner00) July 29, 2022

The opening day of action in the pool at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games went according to plan for Australia.

Elijah Winnington claimed gold in the men’s 400m freestyle, with Australian teammates picking up silver and bronze in the same event.

The Aussies maintained the rage in the women’s 200m freestyle final. Ariarne Titmus won gold, touching the wall just 0.12 seconds ahead of 18-year-old Mollie O’Callaghan, who made a late surge to finish second.

Cody Simpson, Kyle Chalmers and Matt Temple missed out on the 50m butterfly final, but Chalmers returned with a bang to help his compatriots win gold in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay.

Olympic champion Zac Stubblety-Cook tasted victory in the 200m breaststroke final while Tim Hodge won gold in the men’s 100m backstroke S9.

Originally published as ‘Insanity’: Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh dominates Birmingham pool