‘Lesson’s Learned’ for Summer McIntosh After 400 Free Final Miss
Summer McIntosh didn’t account for everyone in the pool Friday morning. As a result, the world-record holder in the 400 freestyle ended up in the B final at the Pan Pacific Championships.
It’s a lesson learned, a contrite McIntosh said, after blistering the third-fastest time of the night in 4:00.58 to win the B final at Irvine’s Woollett Aquatics Center.
McIntosh was third in the fifth heat of five in prelims. As a result, she was ninth in the standings, which meant she was out of the A final, which meant the tilt between Lani Pallister and Katie Ledecky and McIntosh was down one superstar.
“I couldn’t tell the pace I was going, and I knew the first heats were pretty fast,” McIntosh said her night swim. “But I did not see, either Lane One or Lane Eight. My goal was to go second in the heat and I got third, so that kind of messed everything up. Of course, that’s been totally on me. I should know better than to mess with that too much.
“So definitely my lesson’s learned and it’ll never happen again.”
In prelims, McIntosh was in the fifth and final heat, in Lane Four as the top seed. Ledecky won a quick fourth heat in 4:03.48 with Erika Fairweather second in 4:04.50. Kennedi Dobson was the second American after going 4:05.10 to win the third heat, which was the first circle-seeded heat.
McIntosh would’ve been fine if she finished no worse than second to Pallister in the final heat. But she allowed China’s Fan Yaqi out of Lane Eight to get ahead of her in 4:08.36. Two tenths later was McIntosh.
“I know I train as best as I can to prepare for this, so it’s a couple weeks preparation after getting sick and things like that,” McIntosh said. “But obviously, there’s no excuse. It sucks that I missed that final because I know that they’re going to put up a great race tonight.”
After the prelims swim, McIntosh posted on her Instagram story: “I take full responsibility for my misjudgment in this morning’s heats. I will see you all in the B final tonight and thank you for your support” with a heart emoji.
The miss required an uncomfortable midday recalibration.
“Honestly, just kind of wiped it out of my mind, and I really just focused on myself,” she said. “I still got a second swim in, and I know that it was going to be not as good of a race as of course with Lani and Katie. So refocused in, and very grateful that I was able to get a second swim in a B final opportunity.”
To say it was a shock was an understatement. McIntosh is the world record holder at 3:54.18 from Canadian Trials last year. She’s was the only swimmer to break 3:59 this year, with a world-leading 3:58.91 in prelims at the Fort Lauderdale Open in April. The 400 free is one of the events she missed out on by bowing out early from Canadian Trials due to an illness. She started that meet by setting the world record in the 200 fly.
At night, she was aggressive, but with no one to push her. She went 4:00.58. She was 1:57.50 at the 200-meter mark, 1.51 seconds quicker than Ledecky had been at that point in the A final. That title final was the Pallister show, the Aussie setting a best time of 3:58.42 and storming out of the gates to build a lead that Ledecky couldn’t charge back.
Ledecky had the second-fastest overall swim in 4:00.15.
Back to McIntosh: Through 2.5 days of the meet, there was the question of if form or something else is lacking. McIntosh chose the 200 free on the opening day of the meet over the 200 fly. The thought was that she might make a run at the world record, the 1:52.23 of Ariarne Titmus in an event that she hasn’t swum in a major competition in three years. She instead was slower than her time from 2023 in 1:53.86 and two tenths behind Pallister.
McIntosh recovered on Thursday to win the 400 individual medley by nearly 3.5 seconds. Her 4:28.01 was the second-fastest time in the world this year – only her 4:27.35 was quicker – and 10th all-time in an event where her world record is 4:23.65 from Canadian Trials in 2025.
McIntosh isn’t quite sure what’s up, either.
“Honestly, I have no idea,” she said. “The training this year, I feel like I say this a lot, but I’ve never worked this hard. And I know it’ll pay off. It might not be paying off right now, but I know it will. It’s obviously frustrating for it not to play off right now, but I know it’ll come.
“I know I might not be there physically, but mentally I know I can get there. So I think just having that belief in myself, no matter what the times I go here, is super important.”
