Summer McIntosh breaks final world record of the full-body suit era in 200m butterfly

The record fell at the Canadian trials for the Pan-Pacific Championships, held in McIntosh's hometown of Montreal. In front of a home crowd, she bettered the mark of China's Liu Zige, whose time of 2:01.81 minutes had stood since the full-body suit era. After the disqualification of the suits of that time by the world federation FINA, numerous records from that phase were considered nearly impossible to break.

Reactions from the athlete

With the world record, McIntosh underpins her exceptional standing in the sport of swimming. She now holds five of the six fastest times ever swum by women in the 200m butterfly. The 19-year-old had previously attracted attention with strong performances and counts among the defining athletes of her generation.

The success in Montreal is also a personal milestone for McIntosh. As she herself said, she never believed as a child that she could break this record. The fact that it happened in front of a home crowd makes the moment particularly special for her, she emphasized after the race.

Significance for the sport of swimming

The world record of 2:01.65 minutes is the result of continuous development. McIntosh had come close to the best mark several times in recent years before she made the decisive breakthrough in Montreal. The trials also served as qualification for the upcoming Pan-Pacific Championships.

With the fall of the last record from the full-body suit era, a chapter of swimming history comes to an end. The era of high-tech suits had produced a flood of records between 2008 and 2010 that were only rarely broken afterwards. McIntosh's time now stands as a new benchmark in a discipline considered technically particularly demanding.

Attention now turns to the upcoming international competitions. McIntosh is considered one of the favourites at the Pan-Pacific Championships, where she could further push her new record. For Canadian swimming, the success is a showcase and a signal to the international competition.