News Canada World Records

Summer McIntosh Shinier Than Shiny: 2:01.65 WR In 200 'Fly

Summer's advance ended Liu's WR season after 16 years, 8 months and 14 days, ensuring that one of the greatest ahead-of-time standards ever set in the sport lives to fight another decade: Mary T. Meagher's 2:05.96 in 1981, which stood for 18 years, 9 months and 4 days

by Craig Lord

published July 05, 2026

Summer McIntosh had clocked the 2:01.81 World record of Liu Zige in a shiny suit back in 2009 in her mind's eye as a child. She dreamt she would break it one day - and now she has: 2:01.65.

As we noted in our preview, three-times Olympic champion McIntosh, the fastest of swim history's queens of versatility we've ever seen, has made the Canadian Trials a date with pioneering global speed since 2023 when she was 16.

In Montreal open the first day of trials this year, she made it career World record number 7 - all of them set at Canadian Trials. And that's the fifth World long-course record of the year so far (see links below).

The warning had been on the end wall for some time, McIntosh's World-title win in Singapore a slither shy of the 2009 stunner of a Chinese Olympic champion of 2008 who improved 2.25sec on the clock in one season. McIntosh has now taken more than three years. from the age of 16 to improve by the same margin, her Singapore sling the fastest until today:

Here's where she mastered the pacer in Montreal and emerged the fastest 200 flyer in history at about the speed Mark Spitz swam at 1972 U.S. Olympic trials on his way to a 2min 00 swim for one of his seven golds at Munich 1972.

27.45; 58.21; 1:29.73; 2:01.65 Summer McIntosh 2026
27.19; 58.08 1:30.20 2:01.81 Liu Zige 2009
27.28; 58.58; 1:30.19 2:02.26 Summer McIntosh 2025

A more 'easy speed', controlled start; her fastest at the 100m mark but still trailing Liu; the first sub 1:30 in history with a length to go, the WR calling her home; and then the fastest finishing 50m in a 200m 'fly ever, 31.92 to Liu's 32.07.

McIntosh's swim was a symbiosis of the skill of the smart swimmer and the brain of Bob Bowman, who inherited the work of coach Brent Arckey and, it would seem, working with the athlete and her maturity in tow, worked out the puzzle of getting past a 17-year-old record set in a suit that enhanced and warped swim speed in ways the coach of Michael Phelps understood well.

If there had been encouraging signs that Summer's advance and evolution from the fruitful, nay abundant, years she spent with Arckey at the Sarasota Sharks in Florida, the way she swam the 200m butterfly in Montreal left no room for any doubt that the maestro of Phelps and Léon Marchand (and a fair few others) has found the perfect pitch for the Canadian's ace's tenure at the Texas Longhorns.

And here are the lucky folk who were not only there to witness it but can forever say, 'I was in that final when'...

Liu's mark had been the longest standing women's long-course world record, McIntosh ending the run after 16 years, 8 months and 14 days, and ensuring that one of the greatest ahead-of-time standards ever set in the sport lives to fight another decade: Mary T. Meagher's record of 18 years, 9 months and 4 days - the World record shelf life of her 2:05.96 in Brown Deer on August 13 1981. Where it's going since then, the 2008-2009 swims all reflecting the shine of the suits banned since January 1, 2010:

Talking of Mary T... is still going strong in the pool: racing (under her married name Plant) at the 2026 Augusta Dog Days of Summer long-course Masters meet last month, she broke the women’s 100 butterfly Masters world record in the 60-64 age group. The time: 1:07.78. Don't try that at home folks in their 60s unless you've been training for a long time :)...

Meanwhile, McIntosh, a Torontonian who leaves her teens behind on August 18 three days after the Pan Pacific Championships she qualified to race at today, was racing in the Montreal pool almost 50 years since it hosted the Olympic Games there.

Along with her coach Nigel Kemp, Nancy Garapick - who would have been a double Olympic champion at a home Games had it not been for a dark chapter of Olympic and swimming history that still breathes its poison into the lives of the athletes, families, coaches and communities affected - was today honoured on day 1 at the pool she graced:

McIntosh emerged from her new status as the fgirtst woman ever to hold World records, and simultaneously, in the 200m butterfly, the 200m and 400m medley, and the 400m freestyle, to say:

“I would say that’s the one world record that I’ve always dreamed of as a kid. It was a really emotional moment for me. This is something I’ve been working on for a really long time, and getting so close to it at the world championships, then it became a possibility. So to do it on the first day of Trials is a great way to kick off the meet.”

The pioneering lines in McIntosh's pantheon keep piling up. the first Canadian swimmer to win three individual gold medals at a Summer Olympics in 2024, and the most decorated woman among those who have claimed five solo World titles at one championship, with four golds and a bronze in 2025, she is now the first Canadian swimmer ever to hold the 200m butterfly World record.

That makes its five World long-course records so far this year:

After the 200 'fly final, McIntosh said:

“The crowd was always loud throughout the whole race but I could tell over the last 50 that I must be close to world record pace based on how loud the crowd was."

Mary-Sophie Harvey posted a career-best time of 2:10.15 for second place, while Clare Watson claimed bronze in 2:12.58.

Olympic veterans, Taylor Ruck and Kylie Masse, warmed the crowd up earlier in the evening, racing head-to-head in the women’s 100 backstroke event. Ruck prevailed in a personal best time of 58.37, to Masse's 58.87, Ingrid Wilm third in 59.21. Said Ruck:

“I’d say it’s a surprise, yes. I just went in hoping to do the best that I could. Right before the race, I got into a good head space, detached from the outcome and see what happens. It was just a really good race. I was so happy to be able to swim in that pool with teammates that I’ve been on the national team with and who I train with. It just makes it more fun.”

Other opening-night winners were Ella Jansen, of Burlington, Ont. (Etobicoke Swim Club / University of Tennessee), in the women’s 200m freestyle; Calgary’s Lorne Wigginton (Etobicoke Swim Club / University of Michigan), in the men’s 200m free; Saskatoon’s Blake Tierney (HPC-Vancouver / Saskatoon Goldfins ) in the men’s 100m back; Anton Semenyuk, of Gatineau, Que. (HPC-Ontario), in the men’s 200m butterfly; and Aiden Kirk, Kelowna, B.C. (HPC-Vancouver / Kelowna Aquajets), in the men’s 800m free.