Canada’s Summer McIntosh enhanced her status as the rising star of women’s swimming by winning her third gold medal of the Paris Olympics in the 200m individual medley on Saturday.
The 17-year-old produced a brilliant late surge to win in a time of 2min 06.56sec, the third-fastest time in history.
Kate Douglass of the USA finished second to take silver while Australian Kaylee McKeown took the bronze after American Alex Walsh, who had finished third, was disqualified.
McIntosh had already claimed gold in the 400m individual medley and the 200m butterfly, as well as a silver in the 400m freestyle.
McKeown, who was also looking for a third gold in Paris, was viewed by many as her main threat but Douglass was in the lead after the opening butterfly leg.
McIntosh led from McKeown after the backstroke before Walsh grabbed the advantage at the last turn, following the breaststroke leg.
But McIntosh once again produced the killer final lap to grab a thrilling victory.
“It’s pretty surreal. I’m just so proud of myself, how I’ve been able to recover and manage the events because it is a lot,” said the teenager, who also won silver in the 400m freestyle during what has been an intense Games for her.
“The reason I’m able to do this just because of all the hard work and dedication I’ve, given to this moment along with all my family and my teammates and my coaches, and I’ve also worked so hard for me to be here today,” she said.
The Canadian said she knew that she had to pull out all the stops to secure her latest win.
“I knew after the 150-mark I might be behind. I couldn’t really see where I was but I knew that I can just bring it home as fast as possible because I do the 400 IM (individual medley) and I know how to work endurance transitions,” she added.
The silver for Douglass follows her gold in the 200m breaststroke and silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay.
She was upset however that her team-mate Walsh, who was disqualified for an illegal backstroke to breaststroke turn midway through her race, missed out on her bronze.
“I was really heartbroken for her. She deserved to win that medal and she deserves to be on that podium with me. I was really upset for her,” she said.
But it has been a positive Games for the 22-year-old Douglass who had picked up a bronze in the same event in Tokyo.
“After Tokyo it was really cool to get a taste of what winning an Olympic medal was like. So this time I hoped to come home with more than one, and to be coming home with three medals is just really awesome,” she said.
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