³§±õ±·³Ò´¡±Ê°¿¸é·¡â€”Summer McIntosh is trying to kill the queen. She won’t say that, of course, but that’s what this is. Canada’s 18-year-old wunderkind says she is excited to race Katie Ledecky in Ledecky’s race on Saturday night at the world championships, and of course she is. But McIntosh needs challenges the way most people need air.
So McIntosh is trying to defeat the greatest female swimmer ever at the height of her powers, in a race Ledecky doesn’t lose, in front of the world. The 28-year-old Ledecky has lost the 800-metre freestyle once since she was 13 years old, to McIntosh at a relatively minor Florida meet last year. Ledecky then broke her own world record in May this year, swimming 8:04.12. She hadn’t broken that mark since the Rio Olympics in 2016, and she wept afterward.
That just made it all the more remarkable that McIntosh is coming for her. The Canadian could have chosen the 200 freestyle or the 200 backstroke as her fifth event at these championships, and she could set world records there, too. But McIntosh, as her coach Fred Vergnoux put it, chose the one that was a little scarier.Â
“The first camp we did in altitude (early this year), I said to Summer, ‘Look, I think (the 800) could be very good,’ †Vergnoux said. “ ‘You swam 8:11 last year. And you don’t want Ledecky to be winning in (Los Angeles at the 2028 Olympics) and be the only female in history to win five times — even Michael Phelps never did that — the same event. She’s going to win the 800 freestyle because no one is willing to do that.’
“So (Summer) came back to Florida, she raced (in February), she went 8:09 and I think that 8:09 was kind of like the click in the head to be like, ‘OK, I’m going to do that in Singapore and test myself, and see if I can be there with Ledecky.’ â€
Canada’s Summer Mcintosh, left, hugs American rival Katie Ledecky on the podium after winning gold in the women’s 400-metre freestyle event at the world swimming championships.
MANAN VATSYAYANA AFP via Getty IShe and Vergnoux set to work and McIntosh swam a blazing, lonely, slightly confused 8:05.07 at the Canadian trials in Victoria last month, less than a second off the record and the second-fastest time ever. That meant Ledecky only had six weeks’ real warning of how serious this race could be.
McIntosh felt lost for long stretches in Victoria, swimming alone. That won’t happen here.
“Having people around me (in the heat) helped a lot,â€Â McIntosh said. “In Victoria, I had no idea what I was going. I mean, I could have been going way faster, way slower. I was guessing the whole race, I think that was distracting me, rather than just swimming faster. So in the final, having all those girls around will definitely push me to a really good time, and I’m really excited to race Katie tomorrow night.â€
Ariarne Titmus finished within 1.2 seconds of Ledecky’s gold-medal time at the Paris Olympics last year but trailed the entire race, though Titmus never swam an 8:05. McIntosh swam an easy, half-bored 8:19.88 Friday morning, the third-fastest time in the heats, pacing herself against 1,500-metre runner-up Simona Quadarella of Italy. Ledecky ripped off an 8:14.62 in her heat. So in the final Saturday night, McIntosh will be in lane three and Ledecky will be in lane four.
That placement could matter. Ledecky swims this race one way: a punishing, metronomic pace that she could probably recite in her sleep. McIntosh tends to breathe to her left, and in her heat she was slightly faster on legs when she could see the Italian in the neighbouring lane. She has switched sides in the past, but in every major freestyle McIntosh breathes left, which would mean she would not be able to see Ledecky on the second half of each leg, including the final 50.
And while McIntosh is the fastest 400-metre swimmer here — meaning a fast pace shouldn’t be a problem — Ledecky’s final 50 in her world record swim was almost a full second faster than McIntosh’s in Victoria, so McIntosh will need a lead. That said, McIntosh keeps saying she is surprised by how good she feels, and she said she had never felt better in a race than she did in winning her third gold medal Thursday night. She had to manage some slightly difficult logistical circumstances earlier in the week, and Vergnoux said that may have contributed to her slower-than-expected gold in the 200-metre individual medley.
That’s over. This race will be McIntosh in full.Â
“Honestly, I felt a lot better than I thought I was going to this morning. I’ve been recovering really well, probably the best I ever have in a big meet like this,†McIntosh said. “So yeah, I mean, we’re on day six or something, so to feel like this still is really promising, and I’m obviously really excited for tomorrow night, along with the 400 IM on the last day.â€
Vergnoux, meanwhile, said she had improved “quite a bit†since Victoria: more distance, better aerobic measurements, better freestyle form, better performance at higher intensity.
“(Her freestyle) is getting much better,†Vergnoux said. “Her slowest turn in the 400, the slowest, was the same as the fastest turn of Ledecky.â€
Add a pile of recovery time Friday and most of Saturday, and the fact that McIntosh recovered well from her 800 at the trials and the advantage of actually being able to race someone next to her, and this is set up to be a truly special race. Don’t be surprised by a world record. Don’t be surprised if McIntosh is the one who sets it.
It will be a clash of eras, of ambition, of two incredible wills. Ledecky remains the greatest at this distance, but McIntosh has approached this race with a curious, ambitious, implacable determination; Ledecky held that new record for a month before McIntosh announced it was in jeopardy. There is a real chance this is Ledecky’s last stand in the 800. After all, of the two, McIntosh has so much room to improve.
McIntosh is trying to kill the queen, and the queen knows it. One of them will win.
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