July 7 (Reuters) – Summer McIntosh’s coach Bob Bowman says the record-breaking Canadian is yet to reach her physical peak and will keep pushing the limits in swimming as she matures.
The 19-year-old clinched her fourth long-course world record at Canadian trials on Sunday in the final of the 200 metres butterfly, taking down Liu Zige’s long-standing mark with a stunning swim in Montreal.
McIntosh joined Bowman’s professional programme at the University of Texas last year following the world championships in Singapore where she claimed four individual titles.
As dominant as McIntosh has been, Bowman said her highest level may yet be years away.
“I think she’s entering it, probably in the next four years,” he told Canadian Broadcasting Corporation at the trials.
“I think she can be stronger. There are a lot of things that we can add to help her be faster … just in terms of her physiological maturity kind of now and in the next few years.”
Three-times Olympic champion McIntosh has set world records at every Canadian trials dating back to 2023, a record that Bowman put down to a desire to perform in front of home fans.
“She loves it. It’s a great environment for her,” he said.
“Number one, there’s so much support from the whole country here. She doesn’t get that a lot. She swims in America most of the time or other places. So I think that’s important.”
McIntosh cruised to victory in the 400m individual medley in four minutes, 27.35 seconds on Monday, more than three seconds adrift of her world record (4:23.65).
McIntosh was disappointed with the swim and said she needed to check the data to find out where she went wrong.
She was happier about all-time great Michael Phelps posting congratulations on her Instagram feed after the butterfly record.
“Of course, he’s like my main inspiration always. So that was really cool to see,” said McIntosh.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
