Triple Olympic gold medalist Summer McIntosh of Canada will start training under a new swim coach, Bob Bowman, moving to Austin, Texas, after this summer’s World Championships.
“I know I can fully trust Bob and trust his training, and I know I’m going into an amazing training group,” McIntosh told CBC Sports. “But I also think there’s unknowns when it comes to what that’s going to do with my racing and my potential. I think the sky’s the limit with him. I know he’s going to make me reach my full capacity and potential.”
Bowman was Michael Phelps’ career-long coach and coached France’s Léon Marchand to four individual golds at the Paris Olympics.
McIntosh’s three Olympic golds in 2024 came in events that Phelps and Marchand also swam — the 200m and 400m individual medleys and the 200m butterfly.
“Bob having someone like the greatest of all time swimmer Michael Phelps, being able to do all those events is definitely an attraction, and along with Léon as well,” McIntosh, who has a cat named “Mikey” after Phelps, said in February.
McIntosh, 18, previously said that this would be her final season in Sarasota, Florida, under Brent Arckey, her full-time coach for the last two and a half years. She also recently trained in France under coach Fred Vergnoux, who will be with her through worlds in Singapore in July and August.
She is leaving Arckey amicably, seeking to continue her personal and professional development while factoring in academics but not swimming in the NCAA. McIntosh and Arckey gave a joint interview in February to discuss her decision and reflect on their success together.
McIntosh said in February that she had reached out to Bowman, the University of Texas head coach who also coaches pro swimmers in Austin. While McIntosh won’t swim in the NCAA, she does plan to start taking college classes next year, whether that’s in person at Texas or elsewhere online.
McIntosh, who swam four individual events at the 2023 Worlds and the 2024 Olympics, repeated that she plans to race five individual events at the 2025 Worlds: the 200m and 400m individual medleys, the 200m butterfly, the 400m freestyle and one of the 200m backstroke, 200m free or 800m free.
If she chooses the 800m free, it could add another showdown with Katie Ledecky, the four-time reigning Olympic gold medalist in the event.
In February 2024, McIntosh became the first swimmer to beat Ledecky in an 800m free final since 2010. Ledecky and McIntosh are the two fastest women in history in the event.
McIntosh did not swim the 800m free at the Paris Games.
