Summer McIntosh, queen of the World Swimming Championships after a successful semester of training in France

Summer McIntosh was aiming for the record of a swimmer from Maryland, but she ultimately came up against a swimmer from the same American state. In Singapore, the 18-year-old Canadian was aiming to equal Michael Phelps, the only person to have won five world titles at a single edition of the World Swimming Championships – in 2007, in Melbourne (Australia). She will ultimately remain "stuck" at four, after her new victory in the 400m individual medley on Sunday, August 3, only to be frustrated the day before by Katie Ledecky, who dominated her in the 800m freestyle.

The young swimmer from Toronto is a hurricane sweeping through world swimming, and the Asian city-state will have witnessed it, despite this minor setback experienced on the penultimate day of the competition. Her dark look after her 3rd place in the 800m freestyle said nothing of all the joys experienced during the week and her three other gold medals (400m freestyle, 200m butterfly, 200m medley). Particularly demanding of herself, Summer McIntosh is not the type to hide her emotions.

A testament to the swimmer's ambitions, her victory in the 200m butterfly on Thursday gave rise to a comical scene. You don't need to be a lip-reading expert to discern three "fucks" ("shit") uttered by Summer McIntosh, as she saw the world record for the distance, which has stood since 2009, slip away from her by 18 hundredths of a second. In the stands, her father, mother, and sister clasped their heads in their hands in unison, but they all kept smiling, the frustration of the record barely broken softened by the world title. At poolside, coach Frédéric Vergnoux, for his part, showed a look of pride.

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