Summer McIntosh captures 4th gold of swimming worlds, winning 400m individual medley
18-year-old from Toronto clocks 4:25.78 to break her own championship record
Canadian swim star Summer McIntosh won the women's 400-metre individual medley for her fourth gold medal of the world championships in Singapore, capping one of the most dominant weeks in the sport's history.
The 18-year-old from Toronto broke her own championship record with a time of four minutes 25.78 seconds in Sunday's final.
Australia's Jenna Forrester and Japan's Mio Narita tied for silver, finishing 7.5 seconds behind McIntosh.
Yu Zidi, the 12-year-old phenom from China, finished fourth in 4:33.76.
McIntosh shaved 1.3 seconds off her previous record from the 2023 worlds in Fukuoka, Japan.
She has won five individual medals in Singapore, also taking gold in the 400m freestyle, 200m medley and 200m butterfly, along with bronze in the 800m free.
McIntosh is only the second woman in history to win four solo titles at a single long-course worlds, following American great Katie Ledecky in 2015. Ledecky ended McIntosh's bid to join Michael Phelps as the only swimmers to win five by claiming gold in the 800 free ahead of Australia's Lani Pallister on Saturday.
She is also just the third swimmer to win five individual medals at a world championships, joining Phelps and Sweden's Sarah Sjostrom.
"Even though I fell short of my [world-record] goal in the 200 fly and overall with the gold-medal count, I mean it's not a failure whatsoever. Four golds is four golds." McIntosh told CBC Sports' Devin Heroux with all five medals around her neck.
"I have so many amazing takeaways and so many lessons that I can learn from this meet and that's what's going to keep pushing and moving me forward."
McIntosh also won the world title in the 400m medley in 2022 and 2023. She is the reigning Olympic champion and world-record holder, having clocked 4:23.65 to lower her own mark at the Canadian trials in June.
She now has 13 career world-championship medals, with eight gold, one silver and four bronze.
In other Canadian results, Blake Tierney, Oliver Dawson, Ilya Kharun and Josh Liendo finished fifth in the men's 4x100m medley relay later Sunday in 3:29.75, breaking the national record for the second time in one day.
"We're only going to get stronger the next three years," said Tierney, the oldest member of the group at 23. Liendo is 22, Kharun is 20 and Dawson is making his world long-course debut at 17. "We're all quite young in our career and I think we'll be primed for [the 2028 Olympics]."
McIntosh returned to the pool for the women's 4x100 medley relay, the final race of the world championships. She helped Canada finish fifth in 3:55.63, alongside Kylie Masse, Sophie Angus and Taylor Ruck.
The American team consisting of Regan Smith, Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske won gold, lowering their own world record to 3:49.34.
Canada won eight swimming medals at the World Aquatics Championships. Adding to the tally were Montreal's Ilya Kharun in the men's 100 butterfly, Mary-Sophie Harvey, of Laval, Que., in the women's 200 individual medley, and the 4x100 mixed medley relay team — all earning bronze.
Montreal's Simone Leathead added a silver in the women's 20-metre high dive, her first career medal at worlds.
The United States topped the medal table with nine gold medals and 29 overall, ahead of Australia with eight gold and 20 overall. France and Canada were next in the gold-medal count with four.
Other results
Kliment Kolesnikov of the Neutral Athletes won the men's 50 backstroke on Sunday in 23.68. Kolesnikov holds the world record (23.55). Pieter Coetze of South Africa and Pavel Samusenko of the Neutral Athletes tied for silver (24.17).
Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania, the world record holder, claimed the 50 breaststroke (29.55) with silver for Tang Qianting of China (30.03) and bronze to Benedetta Pilato of Italy (30.14).
Meg Harris of Australia took the women's 50 free (24.02). Harris was also the silver medallist in the same event in the Paris Olympics. China claimed the next two places with Wu Qingfeng (24.26) taking silver and bronze for Cheng Yujie (24.28).
Ahmed Jaouadi of Tunisia, winner of the 800 free, added the 1,500 title on Sunday (14:34.41) with silver for Sven Schwarz of Germany (14:35.69) and bronze for American Finke (14:36.60).
France's Leon Marchand won the 400 IM but didn't break his own world record. Marchand won in 4:04.73, just off the world mark he set two years ago in Fukuoka, Japan (4:02.50). Tomoyuki Matsushita of Japan took silver (4:08.32) with bronze for Ilia Borodin of the Neutral Athletes (4:09.16).
Marchand, earlier in the championships, shattered the 200 IM mark in 1:52.69. The old mark was 1:54.00 set 14 years ago by Lochte.
With files from Swimming Canada, The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
