Canada’s Summer McIntosh and France’s Léon Marchand were named World Aquatics Female and Male Swimmer of the Year for a second consecutive year.
McIntosh, a 19-year-old from Toronto, had arguably the best world championships ever for a female swimmer — four gold medals and one bronze in Singapore over the summer.
She became the second woman to win four individual golds at a single worlds — sweeping the 200m and 400m individual medleys, the 400m freestyle and 200m butterfly. She tacked on an 800m free bronze behind American Katie Ledecky (who won four individual golds at the 2015 Worlds) and Australian Lani Pallister.
“I think it was very obvious that my goal was five golds,” McIntosh, who painted five of her fingernails gold before the meet, said after her last swim in Singapore, according to World Aquatics. “Time just didn’t matter. I just wanted to get my hand on the wall the first five times.
“I fell short of that, but I think it’s just going to keep me hungry ... Even if I were to get five golds, I would still want more. That’s just my mentality.”
Marchand, a 23-year-old from Toulouse, followed his four-gold-medal performance at the Paris Olympics by sweeping the 200m and 400m IMs at worlds for a third time.
He also broke Ryan Lochte’s world record in the 200m IM to become the second man in the last 30 years to hold both IM world records after Michael Phelps.
After worlds, McIntosh moved to Austin, Texas, to join Marchand’s training group under coach Bob Bowman.
The major international meets in summer 2026 are the European Championships in Paris and, for non-European swimmers, the Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California.
