Canadian Olympic gold medalist Summer McIntosh of Toronto, Ontario has set the world record again in the women’s 400 metre freestyle swimming event. She accomplished the feat at the 2025 Canadian Swimming Trials from Saanich Commonwealth Place in Victoria, British Columbia on Saturday. McIntosh’s new World Record time was 3:54.18.
This was the second time in her swimming career that McIntosh set the world record in the women’s 400 metres. She first had a time of 3:56.08 at the 2023 Canadian Swimming Trials in Toronto, Ontario. The world record was then broken by Ariarne Titmus of Australia, who had a time of 3:55.38 at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
McIntosh is the only Canadian woman to ever have the world record in the 400 metre freestyle. Three Canadian men have accomplished the feat in the men’s 400 metre freestyle swimming event. Canadian Olympic gold medalist George Hodgson of Montreal, Quebec had a world record time of 5:24.4 in winning the gold medal at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Olympic silver medalist Ralph Hutton of Ocean Falls, British Columbia had a world record time of 4:06.5 in winning the gold medal at the 1968 Amateur Athletic Union National Swimming Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Peter Smizdt of Montreal set the world record time of 3:50.49 at the 1980 Canadian National Swimming and Olympic Trials in Etobicoke, Ontario.
McIntosh won a gold medal in the women’s 200 metre butterfly, women’s 200 metre medley and women’s 400 metre medley at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Hutton won a silver medal in the men’s 400 metre freestyle at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.
McIntosh also set the National Record in the women’s 800 metre freestyle with a time of 8:05.07 on Sunday. The previous Canadian record was 8:09.96 which McIntosh set at the Southern Zone Sectionals in Florida in February. The sizzling times in the women’s 400 metre freestyle and women’s 800 metre freestyle will give her confidence as she prepares for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
