It was in the final stretch of Summer McIntosh fully becoming a household name. A silver medal was already in her back pocket, but that was just the prelude to the real show and on this steamy July Paris night, McIntosh was hellbent on letting the swimming world — and an entire Olympic audience — know she was here and for real. After three years of hype, there was no question that the 17-year-old was ready to back it all up.
McIntosh made her last turn in the 400-m. individual medley final and she was alone in front with nobody else even close. The lead on that last lap of her signature event, the one in which she’d broken her own world record only two months prior, was well over eight metres.
Inside a deafening La Défense Arena, there remained real tension. Jill McIntosh, Summer’s mother, was furiously waving a red towel like it was an NBA playoff game. Summer’s dad, Greg, kept pointing toward the wall.
But amidst all the angst, there was such calm and joy in Lane 3. The teenager knew what was unfolding. And in the biggest flex of Paris 2024, McIntosh broke into a smile underwater in the final seconds of the race. She knew it. Knew it would be gold. Knew the competition was left in the dust. Knew this was the ‘Summer of Summer.’
It became clear then that no athlete in the entire Canadian contingent was, or could come, close to the four podiums and three anthems that McIntosh would leave France with.
“It’s kind of like I’m living in the third person,” McIntosh told me in our interview after she won that 400 IM gold by nearly six seconds.
Whether out-of-body or in the moment, McIntosh’s downright dominance of the Olympic Games will undoubtedly make her Canada’s athlete of the year, and the 2024 winner of The Northern Star Award.
It is a decorated, and vast, year for Canadians in sport. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was magnificent yet again, should have been named NBA MVP and is more than worthy to repeat as the recipient of the Northern Star. Chuba Hubbard has already rushed for 1,000 yards for the Carolina Panthers and has a month left in his NFL season. Brady Oliveira has himself in Russ Jackson territory as the top Canadian and the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player in the same campaign.
Paralympic swimmer Nicholas Bennett won two golds and a silver at Paris 2024 and broke the world record in the 200 IM. Nathan MacKinnon had his Hart Trophy delivered by Nikola Jokic. Connor McDavid stayed in the dressing room when they announced his name for Conn Smythe. No Canadian hit more home runs (31) or had more RBI (108) than MLB all-star Josh Naylor. Our throwers in Paris were golden. Canoeist Katie Vincent won by one one-hundredth of a second, while runner Marco Arop missed out on the top of the 800-m. podium by the same margin. Christa Deguchi, after missing the cut for Tokyo, became the first Canadian to earn an Olympic gold medal in judo.
One of the great elements in the discussion and voting for this award — which begins with a conversation among sports media folk from across the country at 10:30 a.m. ET Tuesday and concludes with each writing-in their ballot — is that there are no wrong answers. So many athletes belong in the running.
And leading the pack is this second-generation Olympian who Canadians now know by first name alone. McIntosh’s 2024 showcased how and why she is on her way to becoming the most decorated Olympian in Canadian history. Each of her golds had its own story. Take the last of the three, in the 200-m. individual medley. After the turn, coming home for the final 50 in the freestyle, McIntosh trailed the leader, Alex Walsh, by 1.3 metres.
Then came the explosion, with McIntosh not only chasing down the American but touching the wall at 2:06:56, good for an Olympic record and a lifetime best. And when she did it, McIntosh looked up to her parents, who were clinging to one another, and gave three fist pumps in the air before smacking the water.
There was such a calm and cool presence to McIntosh throughout the entire Olympic Games. She allowed herself to enjoy the moment of winning the first gold by looking for Mom and Dad and draping herself in the Canadian flag tossed down to her in the pool deck by someone in the family, yet was able to stay locked in throughout the entire meet. That’s hard enough to do when you’re a seasoned vet, let alone 17. She carried herself with a real suave vibe as the closing ceremony flagbearer, too.
It was after her second gold medal, in the 200-m. butterfly — her favourite event; where she made up nearly a full second between the 100- and 150-metre marks — that I asked McIntosh about the source of her confidence, her unshakeable belief that even when she’s trailing the race, any race, is never over.
“All the hours of training, the months, the years I’ve put into this, it just (built) a foundation that I can get it done,” McIntosh said. “It’s only 200 metres of the millions of metres I’ve done.”
There was real pressure on McIntosh going into Paris. Questions swirled about whether or not she’d be able to deliver, if the stakes and the stage would prove too much, too soon. And what emphatic answers she provided, winning in every possible way. From a comeback on the final lap to that ear-to-ear grin with a video game-level lead.
You’re only going hear more about McIntosh in the years to come. But 2024 marked her arrival as Canada’s next great superstar. Which is why, even with the competition as fierce as it has ever been, the ‘Summer of Summer’ made it her year, and she will likely be voted our country’s top athlete for 2024.
