W400IM: McIntosh's Record Margin Of Victory Lands Pioneering 4 Golds & A Bronze
"I think it was very obvious that my goal was five golds. Time just didn't matter. I just wanted to get my hand on the wall first five times. I fell short ... but I think it'll keep me hungry ... Even if I were to get five golds, I would still want more. That's just my mentality." - Summer McIntosh
Petra Schneider of the GDR would have finished sixth in the 400m medley at Singapore 2025 World Championships with her 1982 generation-busting 4:36.10 World record.
Why am I reminding you of this? Well, because that's how far we have to go back to find the biggest margin of victory in the event: Schneider thumped her teammate Kathleen Nord by 7.41sec, the bronze to American Tracey Caulkins a further 1.13sec away.
We know how they did it, of course, and that's one of the things that makes today's 'until now' follow-up line so special: with her 4mins 25.78 Championship record, Summer McIntosh confined the GDR's Mind-The-Gap moment to history:
7.48sec (or 2.02 for every 100)
They didn't have champagne waiting for McIntosh when she claimed a record fourth gold plus bronze in the greatest women's 800m race in history yesterday. Pity, for if they had had a butler sent to serve her on poolside, he would have had time to pop the cork, pour the bubbles and offer a toast before Dolphin Jenna Forrester and Japan's Mio Narita stopped the clock in a snap at 4:33.26, a 12-year-old half a second away and 7.98sec adrift the 18-year-old champion - and faster than the 1982 champion fuelled on state harm:
The huge gap between gold and the rest came down to a simple truth: gold was won in an outlier time that world-championship waters had never witnessed before, by a swimmer who'd gone even faster elsewhere; and silver was won in an excellent time that more than 20 swimmers had clocked before, between 2008-09 (4 shiny suit times in the mix) and 2025. The fastest versatility queen we've ever seen vs the rest chasing the 4:30 mark but still with a few seconds to go.
We conclude this article with a note on the other outlier: 4:33, at 12.
That 4:25 is a phenomenal swim on any day, even if the Canadian's World record is even faster - her 4:23.65 from Canadian trials in June - but it's all the more special for being the last effort in an eight-day campaign of five solo targets. And just a day after she had played a big role in a bruising, yet epic, thriller with Katie Ledecky and Lani Pallister:
Craig Lord
It all left McIntosh - plus her coach Brent Arckey, his team at the Sarasota Sharks, including Vern Gambetta, Fred Vergnoux, Swimming Canada and its performance head John Atkinson, the swimmer's family and entourage - with this tiara of five gems to treasure:
Whistling through the strokes at a pace fit to startle a specialist, McIntosh was 2sec up on fly, 4sec on backstroke, just shy of 5sec after breaststroke - and that record 7.48sec by the close of play.
Not even Florian Wellbrock out on the wave with 19.5km in which to build a strong lead managed to win any of his four golds by as much as McIntosh won the medley as she sailed inside her 2023 championship mark of 4:27.11. The win marked her third best on an all-time top 10 that boasts her seven swiftest swims:
McIntosh's book of pioneering moments gets ever thicker: this evening, she became the fifth swimmer and second woman to win four solo golds at one world championships, after Michael Phelps (5 in 2007), Ryan Lochte (2011), Katie Ledecky (2015) and Caeleb Dressel (2019).
Only one woman has claimed five medals in solo events at a single championship: Sarah Sjöström - 2 gold, 2 silver and a bronze at Gwangju 2019, 12 years after Phelps lifted five golds.
In Olympic waters, Phelps is the only winner of five medals among men - all of them golden at Beijing 2008; while Shane Gould remains the only woman ever to have achieved the feat with an extraordinary three gold - all in world records in the 200 and 400m free and 200m medley - a silver, 800m free, and a bronze, 100m free - at Munich 1972.
No surprise then, to see McIntosh standing next to Léon Marchand, best male of the championships - and soon to be training-group partner in Texas - clutching the trophy for best female swimmer of the championships:
The development of McIntosh has its own book, one stacked with lessons for all to take tips from, in terms of home and the work environment. Of late, McIntosh learned with Fred Vergnoux and team what high-altitude prep looks like, the way Mireia Belmonte, another towering multi-skilled medalist of Vergnoux's, did before her. We took a look at that a while back in our FORUM for subscribers:
Craig Lord
McIntosh did not shy away from honesty when asked what her ambitions for the championships had been, as if we didn't know:
"I think it was very obvious that my goal was five golds. Time just didn't matter. I just wanted to get my hand on the wall the first five times. I fell short of that, but I think it's just going to keep me hungry, and push, and keep moving forward. Even if I were to get five golds, I would still want more. That's just my mentality."
Again, no shying from it when she was asked what she'd learned from her first test of a five-target solo mission?
"I think this meet, I learned more than any other meet ever. And that says a lot. The things I'm learning the most is the bronze and 800 freestyle. And that's going to keep me hungry moving into next season and into LA. All those little things I'm learning from, and I'm going to take notes on the plane on what I can keep improving on."
The mission was full of novel challenges. McIntosh noted:
"I've never done a double before... also doing five individual events. I've never done that before, let alone one of them being the 800. My sleep has never been this good. I've never been a good sleeper during meets... I've been able to relax and have amazing sleep. It's so key to recovery, especially that I can catch up to you in the last final days."
Ask far as that 800 epic went, she hadn't got an opinion yet, for obvious reasons:
"I mean, I haven't watched it yet, but people have been commenting. I think it's great for the sport. I woke up this morning, and I didn't think about the 800... I was already focused on the 400 IM, because 400 IM on the last day of a meet is never fun. Tonight, I actually felt really good in the water, and that's my fastest time that I've ever been on a stage before."
Summing up her stellar championships, McIntosh said:
"Overall, happy with my meet, but always want more. I'm just going to celebrate my wins and kind of take a reset heading into next season. The negatives, I'm going to apply to next season."
All Photos b y Patrick B. Kraemer
Forrester was over the moon. She said:
“I’m so stoked. I feel like it’s been a really tough two years. Obviously last year I didn’t perform the way that I wanted to. It was a massive fight to get on the Olympic team in Paris and then to just miss the final was a bit disappointing. So to make a comeback like that this year, I’m super proud of myself. I’m super grateful to have the support team around me, my coach, my family, my friends. It really means the world to me. And I feel like that swim was for everyone who helped me get here.”
How had It felt to see McIntosh hurling ahead?
“I knew she was going to be pretty far ahead. I just didn't know how far and I went in with the mindset of letting that take me out, but not letting it bother me at the same time. I feel like I've done quite a few 400 IMs, a lot of pace work and training. So I knew how to swim my own race and I feel like that's what got me the silver medal.”
Narita, a snap in the pool, matched Forrester's feelings:
“I’m just filled with happiness. I feel that every experience has been meaningful. Whether it was in Fukuoka, Paris, or domestic meets, each competition had significance for me. At each one, I received support from my coach, family, the Japan national team, and my training partners. Even the frustrating experiences where things didn’t go well gave me confidence when I pushed through until things did go well. Those experiences became a great source of strength.”
And the last word to Yu Zidi. Twelve. Years. Old. Three Fourth Places In races won by Summer McIntosh. The latest was a 400IM, in 4:33.76.
The 200IM in 2:08, the 200 'fly in 2:06. And bronze in the 4x200m free (1:59) as the youngest medalist ever, though one deemed officially too young to hold a World junior record (must be 14, no exceptions ).
Such efforts at 12 raise serious questions - and World Aquatics director Brent Nowicki is to raise the matter with the regulator's executive in the calm of days back in Lausanne. He's right to. And Petra Schneider is among those who could tell him why.
