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She came home to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ from the world championships in Singapore with a suitcase full of medals a week ago and is in the midst of a whirlwind trip. She’s spending time with family and friends at the cottage, feeling “so oldâ€� as her 19th birthday approaches, and preparing to move to Austin, Texas to train with Bob Bowman, the legendary coach who guided Michael Phelps to the medal records she wants to take on.

McIntosh says being open about her goals — the next big one is winning five individual gold medals at the 2028 L.A. Olympics — also boosts interest in the sport.

“People that maybe don’t tune in as much don’t know like, ‘oh who’s this girl, what exactly is she trying to accomplish?’ and being open and public about that gets more people tuning in as well, which I think is really important for swimming.â€�

In just the last year, McIntosh picked up three Olympic gold medals and a silver, three world records, and four world championship golds and a bronze. Those medal tallies, as impressive and Canadian-record making as they are, were both one gold short of what she wanted.

At the 2025 world aquatics championships, she won the 200-metre butterfly, 400 freestyle and 200 and 400 individual medley but came away with bronze in the 800 freestyle — an event long owned by American swimming legend Katie Ledecky.

It was meant as an early trial run for the L.A. Olympics and McIntosh still thinks it’s possible to include the 800, which she admits is “a bit of a daunting length,� in a five-race winning strategy.

“I didn’t achieve the five golds, but I think just more time and experience in the event on the world stage will definitely give me what I need to be able to shoot for that again,â€� she said.

“The 800 is definitely up there for my fifth event in L.A. Once I get settled in Austin, I’ll be brainstorming with Bob and we’ll figure out a plan,â€� she said. “But I still have lots of interest in 200 freestyle and 200 back as well and the deciding factor will be how the program is set up in L.A. and things like that so there’s a lot of unknowns for right now.â€�

What’s not unknown is how she’ll be marking her 19th birthday on Monday: “My birthday plans are getting my wisdom teeth out actually — all four.�

It was the only day she could fit it in her notoriously planned and packed schedule, which is her approach to training and life. Four nights at the cottage with her swimming friends counts as a big break because “we go hard, like we don’t really sleep, we just do as much as possible,� McIntosh said.

“I’m almost 19, which is crazy, I feel like I’m getting so old. I feel I’ve lived so many lives already. I think this sport has made me have to grow up really, really fast. I mean, going to the (Tokyo) Olympics at 14, that’s not a normal experience. So yeah, I feel like I’m 25 years old,” she said. 

McIntosh heads to her new training base in Austin next Friday and is thrilled to settle in one place for a while after spending much of this year training in France and, before that, in Florida and getting to bring her ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ cats, the aptly named Mikey (after Phelps) and Riley, with her.

McIntosh says she has “full trust and confidence� in Bowman already given the success Phelps, Léon Marchand and other Olympic greats have had in his program and what athletes have to say about him as a coach.

“It’s going to be a perfect fit for me and I’m so excited to see how it all unfolds.”

When posing for pictures Tuesday in an RBC high rise overlooking ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½’s waterfront, McIntosh was wearing only her three gold medals from the Paris Olympics.

When asked about the Olympic silver medal, McIntosh smiled and said “theyâ€� don’t care about that one. The chuckle that followed from her sister Brooke — who was the one who actually knew where to find the Olympic medals at home — suggests it’s Summer McIntosh who doesn’t see the point in wearing anything but gold.