Summer McIntosh broke the world record in the 200-meter individual medley at the Canadian Swimming Trials on Monday, making history for the second time in three days.

Before a packed house at Saanich Commonwealth Place in Victoria, the 18-year-old won in 2:05.70, beating the old record of 2:06.12 set by Katinka Hosszú of Hungary in 2015.

He won gold in the 200m individual medley at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. “It’s been one of those records that’s always been in the back of my mind since trials two years ago,” McIntosh said after the race.

“I’ve been trying to get in on this one.” I’ve only been able to chip away at it. When you finish something, you feel like, “Wow, I finally finished that.”

The 200m solo medley has a 50m leg of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. This is all done in one race.

McIntosh said that her record-breaking speed was due to a clean breaststroke leg that set her up to go for the mark. Her backstroke leg kept up her fast race. With a time of 30.80, it was a second faster than the time she set last year for the Canadian record.

It’s always been my weakest stroke, so I’m just trying to get through that 50 and know that my freestyle will make that last 50 really strong because it’s been going so well here so far.

I’m really pleased with that time; I’m always trying to move forward. I need to review my splits to see how my breaststroke went, but I’m happy with it overall.

McIntosh broke the 400m freestyle world record two days before this. She did this by shaving more than a second off the old record, which was held by her long-time foe Ariarne Titmus. Titmus beat the 18-year-old to win the Olympic gold medal in this event at the 2024 Paris Games.

On Sunday, she almost set another world record. With an 8:05.07 time in the 800m freestyle, she set a new Canadian mark. This was the third-fastest time ever, and it was almost five seconds faster than McIntosh’s old record. However, Katie Ledecky set the world record in May, which she beat by 0.95 seconds.

She hopes to keep doing well in the pool at the Canadian trials on Tuesday, when she swims the 200m butterfly, which she says is her favourite race.

Even though McIntosh was already well-known in the swimming world, she became famous in a bigger way last year when she won three golds and one silver at the Paris Games.

Time magazine called it the “Summer of Summer” because of how well she did.