Paris Olympics: Summer McIntosh, Team Canada place fourth in women’s 4x200-metre freestyle relay

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The world is finding out Summer McIntosh moves fast inside the pool – and out.

After winning a gold medal at the Paris Olympics on Thursday night, McIntosh had just over an hour before she joined her teammates on deck for the 4x200-metre freestyle relay.

In the intervening moments she had just enough time to: debrief her gold-medal swim in the 200-metre butterfly with her coach, change into her Team Canada podium track suit, accept the gold medal in front of 13,000 or so screaming spectators, sing O Canada, hug her mom, sister and dad, take a victory parade around the pool deck waving to the crowd, jump in the cool-down pool, get a massage to keep her muscles from cramping, mentally reset for the coming relay, change into her walk-out attire – with her racing suit still on underneath – and join her teammates in the ready room.

Then it was back in the water. Another day at the office for Canada’s busiest swimmer.

The relay team – Mary-Sophie Harvey, first-time Olympians Ella Jansen and Julie Brousseau, and McIntosh fresh from her gold-medal swim – only narrowly missed the podium.

Australia won gold in 7 minutes 38.08 seconds, the United States claimed silver in 7:40.86, and China took bronze in 7:42.34.

Canada placed fourth in a time of 7:46.05 seconds.

“Going into tonight, I knew it would be a big night,” McIntosh said after the race.

“Over all I think we’re all pretty disappointed with that result. But at the same time, I think we’re all extremely proud of each other. Because two of them, that was their first Olympic final and they’re just a little bit older than me,” McIntosh said.

At 17, McIntosh is swimming in her second Olympics, while Brousseau and Jansen are both competing in their first at 18. Harvey was the oldest on the relay squad at 24.

“We’re all so young, along with Mary being so experienced but also still in her early 20s,” McIntosh said. “I think it was a cool moment to share with all of them and we all have such great career paths in front of us and this is only the beginning.”

McIntosh, who swam the third of four legs, joined the squad for the final in a push to get Canada on the podium.

Brousseau was informed earlier in the day she’d be swimming the anchor position in the final, a huge nod and a high-pressure role in just her second Olympic race. Her first took place about 10 hours earlier, during the preliminary heats.

“After prelims they told me. I was a little bit shocked but definitely excited,” Brousseau said.

“I definitely felt the pressure at the end, especially knowing that they had all done their best and I just had to get in there and do my best, but over all I’m just really excited with the opportunity to race.”

Jansen said she also felt the nerves in the loud and rowdy Paris La Défense Arena.

“I think the main thing was trying not to get overwhelmed. So kind of walking out, trying to put a big smile on my face even though that wasn’t really how I was feeling, there definitely was a lot of nerves going into that,” Jansen said.

“But I’m superproud of us, Julie especially. She was going off that block with the loudest crowd I’d ever heard. That was definitely really scary and she handled it really well.”

For McIntosh, it was the second relay she swam in Paris, after a fourth-place finish in the 4x100 freestyle relay on Saturday, an event she competed in less than an hour after winning a silver medal in the 400-metre freestyle.

McIntosh has now won three medals at the Paris Olympics, including two golds and a silver.

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