PARIS — Summer McIntosh won the women’s 200-meter individual medley here at the 2024 Olympics on Saturday, coming from behind over the final 50 in one of the meet’s most loaded events.
McIntosh chased down Team USA’s Alex Walsh and held off U.S. star Kate Douglass with a fantastic freestyle leg to win her third individual gold and fourth medal of these Games, setting an Olympic record with a time of 2:06.56.
Douglass won silver in 2:06.92. Walsh was later disqualified for an illegal turn between her backstroke and breaststroke, allowing Australia’s Kaylee McKeown (2:08.08) to sneak onto the podium in third.
The mainstream media machine had built last weekend’s 400-meter freestyle into the “Race of the Century.” But in swimming circles, that race had a clear winner; the 200 IM, on the other hand, shaped up as the true “race of the year,” with four or five potential winners and a few new titans of the sport.
In Lane 1, there was McKeown, double-double champion of the backstroke events at Tokyo 2021 and here in Paris.
In Lane 3, there was Douglass, gold medalist in the 200 breaststroke and perhaps the most versatile female swimmer on the planet.
In Lane 4, there was Walsh, the silver medalist in this event a few days past her 20th birthday in Tokyo.
In Lane 5, there was McIntosh, 17 years old and already the best all-around female swimmer in the world.
The two Americans entered as the last two world champions. McIntosh entered with three medals, two of them gold, as the breakout star on the women’s side of this meet. McKeown, meanwhile, entered with nothing to lose. “My main events are out of the way,” she said Friday. “And tomorrow’s just a fun time for me” — yet still an event in which she owns a worlds silver medal, and which she entered with the fastest personal-best time in the field.
China’s Yu Yiting, an 18-year-old accelerating into the mix, also lurked in Lane 7. In a relatively predictable sport, this felt like a true “race of the year” because it packed star power but nothing even resembling a clear favorite.
And over two frantic minutes here at Paris La Défense Arena, it lived up to the hype.