Summer McIntosh capped arguably the best world championships for a female swimmer, while the U.S. broke the women’s 4x100m medley world record in the final event to finish with one more gold medal than rival Australia.
McIntosh, an 18-year-old Canadian, swam the third-fastest 400m individual medley in history — 4 minutes, 25.78 seconds, distancing the field by 7.48 seconds.
McIntosh holds the four fastest times ever in the event, including the world record of 4:23.65.
She became the second female swimmer to win four individual golds at a single worlds — also taking the 400m freestyle, 200m IM and 200m butterfly earlier in the meet. She tacked on an 800m free bronze Saturday.
SWIMMING WORLDS: Results
Katie Ledecky, who won Saturday’s 800m free, is the only other female swimmer to claim four individual golds at a worlds (200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m frees in 2015).
Swede Sarah Sjostrom is the only other female swimmer to earn five individual medals at one worlds (2019).
McIntosh, who won three golds and one silver at the Paris Olympics, added a fifth event this year (the 800m free) and has said she plans to do five at the 2028 LA Games.
“I think it was very obvious that my goal was five golds,” McIntosh, who painted five of her fingernails gold before the meet, said, 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.”
World Swimming Championships medal standings: USA over Australia
Overall, the U.S. earned the most medals for a 17th consecutive worlds dating to 1991 and the most golds (9 to 8 over Australia) for a 12th time in the last 13 editions.
Of the 29 U.S. medals, 20 came in women’s events, including at least one medal in 14 of the 17 individual women’s events.
The U.S. men claimed one gold medal over the eight-day meet (Luca Urlando, 200m butterfly), their fewest at a world championships. For the second time, the U.S. won none of the three men’s relays (2001).
A majority of the 47 total American swimmers were affected to varying degrees by acute gastroenteritis, or a stomach bug, leading into and during the meet.
“I think nobody really understands kind of what the group has been through unless you are on this trip,” national team managing director Greg Meehan said on Peacock. “The challenges were incredible. When you have people losing 15 pounds, 20 pounds, that’s a lot, and they have persevered.”
Also Sunday, the U.S. women broke their own world record in the medley relay — 3:49.34 from a team of Regan Smith, Kate Douglass (19th career world medal dating to 2022), Gretchen Walsh (fastest butterfly relay split in history) and Torri Huske.
“This not only sends a message to the rest of the world, but also a message within our team,” Huske said, according to World Aquatics. “We’re the only ones who really know what we went through and how awful it was.”
A team of neutral athletes from Russia won the men’s 4x100m medley relay in 3:26.93, the second-fastest time in history.
Jack Alexy anchored the U.S. to bronze with the second-fastest 100m freestyle relay split in history — 45.95 seconds, just behind the 45.92 from China’s Pan Zhanle at the 2024 Olympics and ahead of Jason Lezak’s iconic 46.06 from the 2008 Beijing Games.
Leon Marchand still has swimming ‘fire’ after IM sweep
France’s Leon Marchand became the first man to sweep the 200m and 400m IMs for a third worlds, taking the latter by 3.59 seconds in 4:04.73, the fifth-fastest time in history.
Last Wednesday, Marchand 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.
“The world record? It shows I’ve still got the fire, that I still love this,” Marchand said Sunday, according to World Aquatics. “It’s what excites me most. I still want to keep going, and I saw a lot of things I can improve.”
Tunisia’s Ahmed Jaouadi won the 1500m free to complete a sweep of the men’s distance races.
American Bobby Finke, the Olympic gold medalist and world record holder, earned bronze — making it five medals in his last five global championships in the event.
Finke said before placing fourth in Wednesday’s 800m free that his personal goals were derailed by the stomach bug.
“This meet’s been quite a whirlwind,” he said after Sunday’s race. “I’m disappointed with my results, but that’s on me. I’ve just got to do better next year.
“I’m happy to be on the podium. It’s obviously not the place I want. My endurance was a little bit better after the 800m. I think it showed there (in the 1500m).”
Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte won a fourth consecutive world title in the 50m breaststroke, 13 years after taking Olympic 100m breast gold at age 15.
American Lilly King, who followed Meilutyte as Olympic 100m breast champ in 2016, finished fifth in Sunday’s 50m breast in the last race of her career. King, a 28-year-old with 15 career Olympic and world titles, said in May that she would retire after this season.
In the 50m backstroke, Kliment Kolesnikov, a neutral athlete from Russia, won by tying his own second-fastest time in history (23.68). His world record is 23.55.
World Championships highlights air next Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on NBC.
