Summer McIntosh swims to record-setting gold in 400m individual medley at U.S. Open

Canada's swimming superstar Summer McIntosh, who has been dubbed a once-in-a-generation talent, has done it again.

On Friday night in Greensboro, N.C., at the U.S. Open swimming competition, McIntosh won gold in the 400-metre individual medley.

Her time of 4:28.61 is a Canadian record and the world junior record in the event. It's also the fourth-fastest performance in the history of the 400-m IM.

McIntosh finished just two seconds off the world record time of 4:26.36 set by Katinka Hosszu of Hungary in 2016.

"I'm really happy overall with my race," McIntosh said. "It's still pretty early on in the season so I didn't really know what to expect from it. It's my first time racing long course this season and I'm really happy with that."

The second-place finisher, Emma Weyant — who won Olympic silver in Tokyo in the same event — of the United States, completed the race 13 seconds behind McIntosh.

It continues a streak of remarkable performances at swim meets by the 16-year-old who seemingly breaks records every time she's in the pool.

A night earlier McIntosh pushed great American swimmer Katie Ledecky to the brink in a riveting 400-m freestyle finish.

"There's always so much to learn with every race good or bad," McIntosh said. "I'm just going to continue to keep improving and working on all the little details."

The two were stroke-for-stoke most of the race before Ledecky made one last strong push to the wall to finished just ahead of McIntosh in a time of 3:59.71 while the Canadian finished second in a time of 3:59.78 — it marked just the third time in her career McIntosh went under the four-minute mark.

The U.S. Open swimming competition started Wednesday and wraps on Saturday. The event has attracted hundreds of athletes from across the United States including Olympians and world championship swimmers, and a few Canadians.

McIntosh, from Toronto, has had a breakout season and is widely regarded as one of the most impressive swimmers in the world right now.

At the world championships in June, the teen won gold in the 200m butterfly, gold in the 400m individual medley and silver in the 400m freestyle. McIntosh also added bronze to her collection at worlds in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

Then McIntosh went to the Commonwealth Games and cleaned up, winning six medals including two gold.

During Tokyo 2020, McIntosh made her Olympic debut at the age of 14 years old.

Josh Liendo of Markham, Ont., also collected a second medal of the meet on Friday, winning silver in the men's 100 butterfly.

Luke Miller of the U.S. won the race in 52.06, Liendo followed in 52.48 and American Zach Harting raced to bronze (52.52).