The secrets of Summer McIntosh's Olympic success

Primary Topic

This episode explores the extraordinary achievements of swimmer Summer McIntosh at the Olympics, highlighting her techniques, training, and mental strength.

Episode Summary

This episode of "The Decibel" offers an in-depth analysis of Summer McIntosh's remarkable performance at the Paris Olympics. Featuring insights from sports journalist Grant Robertson and host Rachel Levy McLaughlin, the discussion revolves around McIntosh's journey from a young swimming enthusiast to a world-class athlete. The episode captures the intense atmosphere of the Olympics, McIntosh's strategic prowess in key races, and the psychological aspects that contribute to her success. Key moments include her historical race wins, the strategic importance of the 400 meters freestyle, and her ability to manage pressure and recovery amidst a grueling competition schedule. This narrative is enriched with anecdotes from the ready room and personal reflections that paint a vivid picture of a dedicated and exceptionally talented athlete.

Main Takeaways

  1. Summer McIntosh's first gold medal at 17 symbolizes her rapid rise and exceptional talent in swimming.
  2. McIntosh thrives under pressure, evident in her dominating performances at the Olympics.
  3. Her training and recovery routines are crucial to her success, handling intense competition schedules with strategic recovery.
  4. The psychological aspect of swimming plays a significant role, as McIntosh demonstrates remarkable mental fortitude.
  5. Behind-the-scenes insights reveal the camaraderie and competitive spirit among athletes.

Episode Chapters

1: Introduction to Summer McIntosh

Overview of Summer McIntosh's entry into the Paris Olympics, her background, and initial influences in swimming. Key moments include her early introduction to swimming and her dislike for judged sports.

  • Grant Robertson: "Summer learned to swim at her cottage and in the backyard pool, then took to competing."

2: Olympic Highlights

Detailed account of McIntosh's races at the Olympics, emphasizing her strategic approach and mental preparation.

  • Grant Robertson: "It was one of those moments where you look at this athlete and you say, this person is different."

3: The Ready Room Dynamics

Insights into the psychological tactics and atmosphere in the ready room before races.

  • Grant Robertson: "You see a bit of gamesmanship going on in there."

4: Recovery and Preparation

Discussion on McIntosh's recovery strategies between races, highlighting the challenges of a packed Olympic schedule.

  • Grant Robertson: "She had to get out of the pool and recover quickly then get back in the pool and immediately compete again."

5: Handling Pressure

Exploration of how McIntosh handles the immense pressure of the Olympics, balancing her personal life with her professional commitments.

  • Grant Robertson: "She handled the pressure by compartmentalizing everything and just focusing on what happens in the water."

Actionable Advice

  1. Embrace Challenges: Like McIntosh, use challenges as opportunities to grow and excel.
  2. Strategic Recovery: Implement effective recovery strategies between intense activities to maintain performance.
  3. Mental Preparation: Develop a mental routine to manage pressure in high-stakes situations.
  4. Balanced Training: Balance physical training with mental and emotional well-being.
  5. Continuous Learning: Always seek ways to improve techniques and strategies.

About This Episode

Expectations were high for 17-year-old Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh coming into the Paris Olympic Games. After all the races were said and done, she won a medal in each of the four individual races she competed in: silver in the 400-metre freestyle, gold in the 400-metre individual medley, gold in the 200-metre butterfly and gold in the 200-metre individual medley. These wins make Summer the first Canadian swimmer to win four individual medals at an Olympics and the first Canadian woman to win three individual gold medals at a single Games.

Grant Robertson has been watching Summer win from the La Défense Arena in Paris. He explains how Summer approached the Olympics, why she is so dominant and who else made it to the podium on the Canadian swimming team.

People

Summer McIntosh

Companies

None

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

Grant Robertson

Content Warnings:

None

Transcript

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Grant Robertson
I think the race that really grabbed me when watching all of Summer McIntosh's races at these Olympics was the 400 meters individual medley.

Rachel Levy McLaughlin
Grant Robertson has been covering Olympic swimming in Paris for the globe.

Unknown
That was the race she came into.

Grant Robertson
The Olympics with the world record in. And it was the race, really where she came in with the biggest target on her back.

And so you had noise, you had pressure. And yet at the start of a swim race, the sound drops out and it gets eerily quiet.

Then you hear the bang, and the swimmers go, and it gets loud again. And the noise, as the race went on just kept getting louder and louder and louder.

Unknown
To see her not only execute that.

Grant Robertson
Race, but win it in such a.

Unknown
Dominating fashion, right off the blocks, she went into first place, and she never.

Grant Robertson
Really gave up that position at all.

Rachel Levy McLaughlin
This was the first gold medal that 17 year old summer McIntosh won for Canada.

In total, Canada won eight medals from the indoor swimming events, four of them by summer.

Grant Robertson
It was remarkable to watch because it was one of those moments where you look at this athlete and you say, this person is different.

Rachel Levy McLaughlin
So today, Grant gives us an inside look at summer's success and how Team Canada managed to win so many medals in the pool at the Olympics.

I'm Rachel Levy McLaughlin, and this is the decibel from the Globe and Mail.

Unknown
Grant, thanks so much for being here.

Grant Robertson
Thank you for having me.

Unknown
So it does feel like summer McIntosh is kind of the canadian star of these Olympics. And I know you've been following her career for a while. You've talked to her, her parents, her coach.

Rachel Levy McLaughlin
And so before we sort of get.

Unknown
Into the details of her performance in Paris, let's just take a step back and talk a little bit about her. So how did she get into swimming?

Unknown
Her mom was a swimmer.

Grant Robertson
Her mom swam at the 1984 Summer Olympics, but her mom was careful not.

Unknown
To push the kids into swimming.

Grant Robertson
You know, just because she competed didn't mean that summer or her sister Brooke.

Unknown
Necessarily had to compete.

Grant Robertson
But, you know, like most kids, Summer learned to swim. And then, you know, she swam in the lake, at her cottage and in the backyard pool, and then took to competing. And what I find really interesting about summer's personality, from getting to talk to her quite a bit, is she also was in figure skating at a young age, but she didn't like judge sports. She liked the black and white of a clock. You know, you either win or you lose. There's no question.

Unknown
There's no gray area.

Grant Robertson
She loved being under the magnifying glass of swimming. She talks about, you know, having nowhere to hide.

And so she really, I think, took to the sport because of what makes swimming so pressure packed, which is an interesting facet of her personality.

Unknown
And she started competing in swimming when she was really young. Right?

Unknown
She did.

Grant Robertson
She started getting serious about swimming as young as seven years old and really started to emerge as a high end talent on swimming Canada's radar at about age twelve because she was exceptionally good.

Unknown
At endurance races, the middle distances and the longer distances. And when she went to Tokyo, she.

Grant Robertson
Swam the 400 meters freestyle, which is a middle distance, almost made it on the podium as a 14 year old. And that really set her up for these Olympics, because she really honed her.

Unknown
Middle distances since then.

Grant Robertson
And she came in as one of the world's best in Paris.

Unknown
And that first medal that summer won. This was sort of dubbed the race of the century. Can you tell me about sort of the significance of the medal in that race?

Unknown
Yes, that race, the 400 meters freestyle.

Grant Robertson
Which kicked off the Olympics on the first night of competition, was called the.

Unknown
Race of the century, because what you.

Grant Robertson
Had there was the past three world record holders going up against each other in one race, which is exceedingly rare. So you had Ariane Titmuss, the australian swimmer, you had the US's Katie Ledecky, and you had summer McIntosh, and then you had a fourth swimmer in there from New Zealand.

Unknown
And together they are the four swimmers.

Grant Robertson
Who have gone under four minutes in that race, four of the five in.

Unknown
History to do it.

Grant Robertson
The fifth one is retired.

Unknown
So you had this collection of talent.

Grant Robertson
That you may never get in one pool again, or for a very long time. That's why they were calling it the.

Unknown
Race of the century.

Grant Robertson
It wasn't about how close the race should be. It was, will we ever see names like this in three world record holders together in one pool?

Unknown
And what the term race of the.

Grant Robertson
Century is a reference to is the.

Unknown
Race of the century on the men's side.

Grant Robertson
That happened in 2004 when you had a australian legend, Ian Thorpe, one of the best swimmers ever. You had dutch swimmer Peter van den Hugenband, also a legend in the sport, and you had a young Michael Phelps all going head to head in the 200 meters freestyle. Thorpe won it, Phelps came bronze, and Phelps went on to become himself the greatest swimmer on the men's side ever. So what I found interesting about this is the women's side finally got a version of that, because there's been talk for years about when would women swimming.

Unknown
Get a race of the century.

Grant Robertson
And I think we got that in Paris.

Unknown
I'm curious about some of the behind the scenes aspects of the Olympics that you got to see. So what's happening before the swimmers come out onto the pool deck before race?

Unknown
The ready room. The ready room is one of my.

Grant Robertson
Favorite aspects of the pool because it's.

Unknown
Where you see the most tension, the most nerves.

Grant Robertson
You see a bit of gamesmanship going on in there.

One of my favorite questions to ask swimmers is, what's your favorite ready room story? Or what's the weirdest thing you've ever seen in the ready room? Because it's basically this, you know, it's.

Unknown
The size of a bedroom.

Grant Robertson
It's this area where they gather all of the swimmers who are about to race together.

Unknown
And you have to stand there next to your competitors. And so a lot of the times.

Grant Robertson
You'Ll see them standing quietly. Some will have headphones on, listening to music.

Some will be trying to psych themselves up, regular stuff like that. But sometimes you see very strange things. I've heard stories about swimmers going to the corner and screaming at the wall to psych themselves.

Unknown
Oh, wow.

Grant Robertson
Mark Tewksbury told me a hilarious story. I said, what's the weirdest thing you ever saw? And he said, easy. When he swam to a gold medal in 1992, he was up against two.

Unknown
American swimmers, and he said the american.

Grant Robertson
Swimmer stood directly in front of him.

Unknown
And talked about him like he wasn't there.

Grant Robertson
They said, well, we don't think Mark looks good today. Yeah, I think Mark's going to swim very terribly today.

Unknown
And this is the former canadian Olympic swimmer.

Unknown
I.

Grant Robertson
That's right, yeah, he won gold for Canada in 92. And so, you know, right before the race, they're kind of passively, aggressively trying to just psych him out. And he said it only served to.

Unknown
Inspire him even more.

Grant Robertson
And he went out and won that race. And it's a legendary race in canadian swimming, you know, at the Paris Olympics.

Unknown
I think the ready room was a little more subdued.

Grant Robertson
It looked a little more professional. I did notice summer McIntosh is body.

Unknown
Language in that room.

Grant Robertson
She sort of stood there a lot.

Unknown
Of times just with her hands on.

Grant Robertson
Her hips, focusing forward, and to me, it looked like somebody who was ready to go. She was focused all Olympics. Her focus in Paris was remarkable. I asked her afterward if she was ever nervous during any of the races, and she said, I was nervous before the first one, on the first night, but after that one, I didn't feel nerves. And so looking back on her demeanor.

Unknown
In the ready room, I think you.

Grant Robertson
Saw that focus and that resolve.

Unknown
And what about during the race? Do you have any sort of insight on what they're thinking about while the race is actually happening?

Grant Robertson
A lot of them are counting their strokes because they want to time how close they are to the wall to get the right turn.

But what I love asking swimmers is who swim the individual medley about what they're thinking about during the race, because there's a lot going on in that, that race in particular, because you deploy all four strokes, the backstroke, the butterfly, the breaststroke, and the freestyle. So swimmers say you have to keep.

Unknown
Your wits about you, because every swimmer.

Grant Robertson
Is good at one stroke, and they've got a stroke that's weaker. So, you know, when, if you're ahead.

Unknown
You may not be ahead the next length. So they're constantly paying attention to where everybody is.

Meantime, they're also trying to count their.

Grant Robertson
Own strokes and make sure that they're executing each leg of that race. And then at the wall, you turn and you essentially start a new race.

Unknown
With a new stroke.

Unknown
Right.

Grant Robertson
And I talked to Marianne Limpert, who won silver for Canada in the 200 IM in 1992. She's one of our greatest immers ever. And she said she would always say a word for every stroke in her head. So, you know, she'd say, tempo, tempo, tempo. Or when she got to the freestyle, it was just go, go, go. And that's how she got through those races.

Rachel Levy McLaughlin
Cool.

Unknown
And what about recovery from these races? Because, you know, summer Macintosh, for example, ended up racing four individual events and three relays in just over a week. So, you know, there's not much downtime.

Grant Robertson
Recovery was the big story of these Olympics for Summer McIntosh.

Unknown
She raced 13 competitions in nine days.

Grant Robertson
I added it all up.

Unknown
She swam about 3 km in Paris. If you put all of her races.

Grant Robertson
End to end on two of those nights, there was very little time in between her races. There was one night, there was 40 minutes between two of Summer McIntosh's races for a medal. And so in that short amount of.

Unknown
Time, she had to get out of.

Grant Robertson
The pool, debrief the race with her coach, try to cool down, try to get a massage so she doesn't cramp up normally, they might change racing suits between a race. She didn't have time for that. At one point, we saw her sort of run bye.

Unknown
Because she didn't have time to stop.

Grant Robertson
And talk to anybody. And then she had to go to the cool down pool, and then she had to get on her Team Canada tracksuit so she could get on the podium to accept a medal because she was winning so many medals. And then she had to get out of that tracksuit, go to the ready room, meet up with her teammates for the relay. It was remarkable to see somebody try to, you know, get out of the pool and recover that quickly and then get back in the pool and immediately compete again. But stepping back from that, you know, her recovery outside of the pool, that.

Unknown
Was almost a competition that was as.

Grant Robertson
Important as what was going on inside the pool, because her job was get back to the athletes village as quickly as possible. And as she said, she was doing nothing but eating and sleeping.

Unknown
When she was away from the pool.

Grant Robertson
She had to get as much sleep as possible. Swimmers burn a ton of calories, so she, she's always trying to get a food into her. And so, basically, you know, to ask summer Macintosh what she did in Paris, she would say swim, eat, and sleep, and, which is, which is kind of hilarious to think about.

Rachel Levy McLaughlin
We'll be right back.

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Unknown
Let's talk about the mental side of these races, because I imagine there's a lot of pressure. So how does summer Macintosh, she's only 17 years old. How does she sort of handle that pressure of the expectations around the Olympics?

Grant Robertson
That was the big question coming in, because you could see there was a swimmer who's 17 years old with so.

Unknown
Many expectations on them.

Grant Robertson
You know, she had a world record. Everybody knew she was world class. Everybody was gunning for her.

Unknown
And she's so young.

Grant Robertson
And one of the things that I found really fascinating was watching her handle that pressure. She started the Olympics very serious, and she'd say, well, I'm just focused on.

Unknown
The task at hand.

Grant Robertson
And, you know, at certain points was almost very robotic, which is not her personality.

Unknown
Away from the pool, she's a regular teenager. She likes to talk about her cats.

Grant Robertson
She likes to go shopping. Her and her sister liked to stream movies on, you know, on their laptop and talk about pop culture.

Unknown
Right.

Grant Robertson
But at the pool, she was only.

Unknown
About her races, and that's how she.

Grant Robertson
Handled the pressure, was just compartmentalizing everything and just focusing on what happens in the water.

But an interesting thing happened after she got her first race out of the way, the silver medal, she started to loosen up a little bit. Then she had her big medleys coming, and then she got a gold, and then she got another gold. And by the time she got to the end of the week, we started.

Unknown
To see her shoulders drop a little.

Grant Robertson
Bit, and we started to see her smile more, which was interesting because she was so focused throughout the week that, you know, it was almost like she didn't want to break her concentration. But by the end of the week, you know, she was sort of, like, laughing a little bit. And one of the quotes that really stuck out was she going into her final race. She described it as bittersweet because she said, I'm having such a good time in Paris. This is kind of bittersweet that this is my last race. And that, to me, was a complete shift from her early on.

Rachel Levy McLaughlin
Mm hmm.

Unknown
So, obviously, summer McIntosh is just one of the swimmers on the team. So who else stood out to you in the pool during these Olympics?

Grant Robertson
There are two swimmers that really jumped.

Unknown
Out at me at these Olympics, in.

Grant Robertson
Addition to summer McIntosh. The first one is Kylie Moss, 28 year old backstroke specialist, one of the best swimmers that we've had in Canada and somebody who's credited with really turning around the canadian swimming program starting in about 2016. When started winning a lot of medals at the pool, there were questions surrounding Moss about, you know, in her third.

Unknown
Olympics, could she come in and contend again?

Grant Robertson
And she answered that with a bronze medal in the 200 backstroke, giving her five medals, which is amazing when you think about it. You know, Penny Alexiak is Canada's most decorated olympian at seven medals, and Moss now has five. And she kind of flies under the radar for being one of the kind.

Unknown
Of all time greats in the sport.

Grant Robertson
And so, so to see her get that medal in what may be her last Olympics was quite impressive.

Unknown
To see just the consistency that that.

Grant Robertson
Athlete has been able to put forth over the years the other swimmer that.

Unknown
Really jumped out at me. Well, there were two on the men's.

Grant Robertson
Side, Josh Lendo, who's considered the sort.

Unknown
Of future of men swimming in Canada.

Grant Robertson
And the guy who was really leading the hope for breakthrough of men swimming in Paris, getting a silver medal in the hundred meter butterfly on the men's side.

Unknown
That was a real statement.

Grant Robertson
And for also Ilya Karun to get bronze in that same race, first time ever that two men have stood on the podium together in swimming, in the history of the Olympics, which is remarkable. And the funny backstory of that is their roommates at the athlete's village. So Karun actually broke the medalist streak.

Unknown
For the men a few nights earlier.

Grant Robertson
In the 200 meters butterfly.

Unknown
And so they're sitting around in the.

Grant Robertson
Room talking, and they're kind of musing about, what if we both got on.

Unknown
The podium in the hundred? Now Lendo's favored, and Korun was an outside shot. You can sort of imagine them being.

Grant Robertson
Like, yeah, that would be a great idea. Why don't we do that?

Unknown
And then when Karun touched the wall in that race, he said, he turned around and he looked in disbelief that.

Grant Robertson
He had actually done it, and Canada had gone two three in that race.

Unknown
So after years of the men coming.

Grant Robertson
Up short, their breakthrough at this Olympics, I think was pretty significant. And Lendo is the guy sort of.

Unknown
Leading that sort of renaissance of men swimming in Canada.

Grant Robertson
They leave these Olympics with three medals, which is big for them, and he's the future for the 28 LA Olympics.

Unknown
So Canada sort of has all these really great swimmers. Now. I'm curious how we sort of got to this point. How did Canada build up all of this swimming talent?

Grant Robertson
It's a really good question because it seems like we've gotten really good, really fast in swimming, doesn't it, really? If you look at where we're at now in canadian swimming, it began to change in about 2013 when the high performance director John Atkinson shows up in Canada and decides to really make the program more sophisticated and really start identifying talent and developing talent, I think more than we had been doing in Canada previously, and building depth in the program.

But it's not just about planning, necessarily that made them good. They've also had the luck of seeing generational talents materialize. So around 2015, you get Kylie Maas, one of the best backstrokers ever in Canada, emerge, you get Penny Alexiak, show up on the scene and just destroy the Rio Olympics with four medals, seemingly out of nowhere.

And then in Tokyo, you have Maggie.

Unknown
McNeil winning gold at that point. That was the 9th gold medal Canada had won in the history of swimming.

Grant Robertson
And yet they had a problem on the men's side. The men's side was really lagging because.

Unknown
Men take longer to develop in swimming. They tend to get really good in.

Grant Robertson
Their twenties, but you still have to.

Unknown
Develop their technique as teenagers.

Grant Robertson
And so that's about identifying talent and then growing that talent. So in more recent years, we've seen them really try to target young swimmers on the men's side, that they can grow into Olympians. And Josh Leando is a great example of that. They really started turning him into a.

Unknown
Future olympian at age 14 and 15.

Unknown
And overall, sort of how effective would you say Canada's swim team was at these Olympics? Going into the games, there was a sense we could compete for a decent number of medals. We ended up with eight. Three gold, two silver, three bronze. So was this a successful games for swimming?

Unknown
I think they can declare it a.

Grant Robertson
Success, but right within the window of.

Unknown
The bar, they were probably setting for themselves. So going in, they said, well, we're.

Grant Robertson
Hoping to get six plus medals. And the reason they chose that number is because they won six medals in.

Unknown
Rio and six medals in Tokyo.

Grant Robertson
So they said six plus in Paris is a success. Now, Canada came into these Olympics with.

Unknown
Probably the deepest swimming team we've ever.

Grant Robertson
Had, the most talent, and so possibly.

Unknown
They might have expected more than eight.

Grant Robertson
And I think they did.

Unknown
Where they came up short was in.

Grant Robertson
The relays, and that was really surprising. Canada has always been good for a couple of medals in the team relays.

Unknown
The past two Olympics.

Grant Robertson
We've got two medals in relays at each one, and they were absolutely expecting a few in those. And it was kind of a bit.

Unknown
Of a heartbreak for two reasons, because.

Grant Robertson
Medals in the relays would have been historic for Canada.

Had one of the women's relays won a medal, you probably would have seen summer McIntosh get a fifth medal. That would have tied her for most in a single Olympics by a canadian. That record's held by Cindy Klassen, the speed skater. Five in one Olympics, very difficult to do. Summer would have tied that. Had the relays gotten on the podium.

Unknown
They came fourth in two races.

Grant Robertson
So close. The other historic medal would have been Penny Alexiak was part of the relay team.

Unknown
Her historic count of seven medals would.

Grant Robertson
Have risen to eight. And, you know, these Olympics might be Penny's last best shot at getting on the podium. And so I think the relay problems they saw in Paris would be a disappointment for them.

Unknown
So just to end here, granted, I want to come back to summer Macintosh. So now that the races are done in Paris, what's next for her?

Grant Robertson
That's interesting. She's about two weeks away from her 18th birthday, so she's flying home this week, and she's going to go to her cottage in Ontario, where she's going to celebrate her birthday with her friends and some of her teammates from Florida, where she trains are coming up. And from what I gather, the guest list for that birthday party is growing by the minute. They're gonna have a lot to celebrate.

Now, what might get in the way of that birthday celebration is the fact that she's most likely gonna be called back to Paris to carry the flag into the closing ceremonies for Canada. Now, the Canadian Olympic Committee likes to be coy all the time and not indicate who they're choosing for that until they actually announce it. But I don't think there's any other choice in this case, given the Olympics she's just had. So that might interrupt the birthday celebrations.

Unknown
Summer McIntosh also has to finish high school.

Grant Robertson
She's two courses short.

Unknown
And her mom was saying that she was really stressed out in April, that.

Grant Robertson
She wasn't going to be graduating at the normal time and that she had to get these two courses. And her mom had to say, summer, it's okay. You have the Olympics coming up.

Maybe do those courses in the fall. So that's what's next on her plate. And then she'll be going back down to Florida to where she trains with her team in Sarasota, you know, starting preparations for the next Olympics.

Unknown
Grant, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for following all this swing for us. Thanks.

Grant Robertson
Thank you so much.

Rachel Levy McLaughlin
That's it for today. I'm Rachel Olivie McLaughlin. This episode was edited by Kevin Sexton. Our producers are Madeline White and Mihal Stein. David Crosby edits the show, Adrian Chung is our senior producer, and Matt Fraynor is our managing editor. Thanks so much for listening.

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