Summer McIntosh competes in the women’s 400-metre freestyle event at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre on Tuesday. McIntosh set the world record during the race with a time of 3:56.08, supplanting Australia’s Ariarne Titmus. (Michael P. Hall/Swimming Canada – image credit)
Summer McIntosh is now the world record holder in the 400-metre freestyle event.
The 16-year-old phenom electrified the hometown crowd with another memorable performance on Tuesday night at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre on opening night of the national trials.
With her parents, Jill and Greg McIntosh in the crowd, Summer stopped the clock in a time of 3:56.08, breaking the world record held by Ariarne Titmus of Australia.
It’s her first world record — she holds many world junior and national records.
McIntosh was overrun with emotion after the race as she looked up at her parents cheering in the stands.
WATCH | How Summer McIntosh’s world record swim looked from poolside:
The normally composed and reserved teen broke down in tears.
“I’m not a crier,” she told CBC Sports after the race.
“It’s absolutely incredible. I’m not an emotional person. But I was hit with so much emotion. Pure euphoria right now. I’m just so grateful for everyone who got me to this point.”
WATCH | McIntosh sets women’s 400m freestyle world record:
McIntosh fought back tears as she described the moment.
“Over the past few years I’ve put my life into this. To be the best I can be. To achieve something like this, it was very unexpected. It was never in my dreams to do this tonight or even a few years ago. This just blows my mind.”
Summer’s head coach Brent Arckey, who travelled from Sarasota, Fla., for the event was equally emotional after the swim.
“I’m not really sure what to say right now. I’m trying to hold it all in. But celebrating her. This is a special thing,” he said.
“I’ve seen her do some really special stuff in practice. I’m just super proud of her. She’s one of the best racers I’ve ever seen.”
Mother Jill’s valuable experience
Jill, who competed in swimming at the 1984 Olympics for Canada, has valuable experience to lean on to help guide her daughter.
She was bursting with pride as she watched Summer touch the wall on Tuesday night at trials.
“I’m so proud of Summer and the person she is, foremost. I just hope she’s happy with her races here this week,” Jill said.
“She loves this facility. It’s all learning at this point heading into the worlds this summer and the Paris Olympics. This is a stepping stone.”
Michael P. Hall/Swimming Canada
Greg talked about how nice it is to be able to drive to the pool to watch his daughter — something that doesn’t happen all that often these days.
“I know she’s training in Florida but she will always be Canadian and we are so proud of her,” he said.
Arckey says each meet from here until the Paris 2024 Olympics is a chance to tinker with things and ultimately get better.
“I don’t fully understand what she means to Canada because I’m not Canadian. I don’t live here, but I’ve got a pretty good idea of what she means to the country,” Arckey said.
“The world championships this summer is the first big test. And we’re going to try to do right by Canada.”
Summer’s meteoric rise doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Her intensity is realized through an unmistakable stoicism despite what’s happening behind her focused face.
Thriving in, out of the pool
McIntosh is thriving, both in swimming and in life, and is loving being in Florida with her club team.
At the place they call the Shark Tank, home of the Sarasota Sharks club, there are three outdoor 25m pools. All 29 lanes spread across the three pools are constantly churned up by legs and arms creating a cacophony of splashing.
Upwards of 60 to 70 swimmers are in the pool during morning practices, including Summer, who is there two times each day of the week.
For as intense and focused as Summer is each training session, she’s also having fun. With a group of swimmers her age with the same goals and dreams as her in the pool, the teen from Canada says she’s right where she wants to be.
“There’s a bunch of girls and guys down here that I’ve started to get really close to and get to know really well, and they’re also going to be travelling on the world stage and that’s really exciting for them and I’m very proud of all of them and what they’ve accomplished so far,” Summer said.
“Together as a group, we’ve really grown and continued to improve our swimming, which is obviously the main goal, but also having fun while doing so.”
‘You have to have fun’
It’s something Jill feels is important.
She doesn’t want her daughter to be so singularly focused on swimming that she forgets to be a kid sometimes.
“I think as parents Greg and I want to make sure the kids are having fun. You have to have fun. No matter how old you are, have fun through your whole career,” Jill said.
“And you have to celebrate the steps along the way.”
In between swimming sessions in Florida, Summer squeezes in school and strength and conditioning sessions.
About ten minutes away from the Shark Tank, Summer works out at the Positive Sports Lab with director Jason Riley. He’s trained NFL and MLB players as well as Olympic gold medallists.
Inside the space there is top-of-the-line equipment at every turn.
Summer can easily do three sets of pushups with a 20-kilogram weight on her back before picking up a medicine ball.
“Doing that is not something you see every day from someone her age. She does not mess around. She’s extremely dedicated to her craft and has the mindset you see in a lot of world-class athletes,” Riley says.
“Summer is a special athlete. She has god-given talent and this unique work ethic and discipline. The sky’s the limit for her.”
What becomes evident very quickly is how much the team around Summer is doing everything it can to make sure she stays in a healthy mental and physical mindset.
She has the experience of her mom’s career to lean on. She has a coach in Arckey who unequivocally respects what Summer’s trying to achieve.
“I have such amazing people surrounding me with family, friends and all the coaches, and I’m so grateful for that and I honestly could not be having any more fun than this,” Summer says.
Other notable results
Eric Brown, 20, of Pointe-Claire, Que., had the unenviable task of following up McIntosh’s stunning performance, swimming to gold in the men’s 400m free finals with a time of 3:50.81.
Also taking home a gold medal in the men’s competition was James Leroux in the 100m breaststroke (Para) with a time of 1:10.97.
First-place finishers in the women’s events were Niki Ens in the 50m breaststroke (Para) with a time of 1:43.32, and Tess Routliffe clocking in at 1:34.68 in the 100m breaststroke.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
