Swimmer Summer McIntosh again named The Canadian Press female athlete of the year

Summer McIntosh continued to blaze a trail in the pool in 2025.

The 19-year-old swimmer from Toronto was voted The Canadian Press female athlete of the year for a third straight year.

McIntosh won four gold medals at the world championship in Singapore after setting three world records at national trials.

She became just the second woman to claim gold in four individual events at a single world championship after American star Katie Ledecky in 2015.

The Canadian set herself up for a monster meet in Singapore when she lowered world records in the 400-metre freestyle and individual medley, and 200-metre individual medley during June’s trials in Victoria.

“Whenever I go into a trials, I’m always trying to chase world records, but going to Singapore, which was way longer of a meet, and you’re across the world and there’s a lot more external things that are completely out of your control, it was just trying to get my hand on the wall first in as many events possible,” McIntosh said.

McIntosh was quietly confident in stating her goal of five gold medals in five races in Singapore.

“Any time I get in the water, and I do a race, I’m trying to win,” McIntosh said. “I know that doesn’t even come close to happening every time, but especially when it comes to my best events at an Olympics or a world championships, my goal is always to get the gold for Canada.

“Saying it out loud also makes me realize it more and also makes it feel more real for me.”

She came close to her goal with victories in the 400 and 200 individual medleys, 400 freestyle and 200 butterfly. McIntosh also took bronze behind victor Ledecky in the 800 free.

“Even all the way from Singapore, all of Swimming Canada, we all felt the love and support back home,” she said. “It was so fun coming back.

“It keeps me motivated in the times where you might be tired or something, and you just have to keep pushing, moving forward, knowing that Canada is behind you and supporting you.”

The Canadian Press yearly awards for top male and female athletes, and top team, are determined by a vote of editors, writers and broadcasters from CP client news organizations across the country.

McIntosh was the second woman to earn CP’s female athlete award three straight years after figure skater Barbara Ann Scott from 1946 to 1948.

McIntosh received 34 of 53 votes ahead of rugby player Sophie de Goede (8), tennis player Victoria Mboko (5) and cyclist Magdeleine Vallieres (3).

Ski cross racer Marielle Thompson, hockey player Marie-Philip Poulin and hammer thrower Camryn Rogers each received a vote.

McIntosh’s accomplishments in 2025 were the overwhelming choice among voters.

“I like her swagger,” wrote Waterloo Regional Records news editor Brian Williams. “She tells everyone she’s going for gold and then does it. Medals of any other colour are not good enough for her.”

CP’s female athlete award was first given in 1932 to sprinter Hilda Strike, a double Olympic silver medallist in track and field.

It’s been an annual recognition since then, except for four years during the Second World War, and in 1950 and 2000 when the award was for female athlete of the half-century and century respectively.

Other women have claimed it for three or more years, but not three in succession. Golfer Marlene Streit was chosen five times (1952, 1953, 1956, 1957 and 1963).

After winning three gold medals and one silver at the 2024 Paris Olympics, McIntosh moved her training base from Florida to France to work with coach Fred Vergnoux ahead of the trials and world championships.

She later relocated to Austin, Texas, following the world championships to join Bob Bowman’s pro group.

“2025 was a pretty crazy year for me just because I was kind of moving around a lot,” McIntosh said.

“It was a big learning experience for me, and it was probably one of the most challenging training periods of my life, along with going into Singapore. I knew that it was definitely going to be even more challenging than the Olympic Games, with the hope to get five golds.

“I learned a lot. I swam a lot.”

Bowman was the mastermind behind Michael Phelps and his career 23 Olympic gold medals, as well as Frenchman Leon Marchand’s four gold medals in Paris.

McIntosh now trains alongside Marchand and American Olympic medallists Regan Smith and Simone Emmanuel in Austin.

“To have people this fast on the men’s and women’s side to push me every single day, there’s nothing like it really,” she said.

McIntosh fell ill in October with an ailment that went undiagnosed. A complication from a spinal tap to test for viral meningitis put her in bed for a week.

She missed all three stops on the World Cup tour, including one in her hometown of Toronto.

“It was pretty heartbreaking just because I had done so much hard training with Bob prior to that,” McIntosh said.

McIntosh rebounded in December’s U.S. Open with victories in the 400 freestyle, in the second-fastest time ever behind her own world record, and 200-metre butterfly.

“You never know when you’re going to get taken out of the water,” she said. “Go to practice every day, grateful and keep pushing and moving forward and stay healthy for sure.”

With no Olympic Games or world championships on the menu in 2026, what’s next for McIntosh?

“I’m really just focused on seeing if I can lower my own world records and break some new ones as well,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 26, 2025.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press