Canada's Summer McIntosh wins 200-metre butterfly for second Olympic gold

Summer McIntosh is becoming quite familiar with the Olympic podium.

The Canadian swimmer captured her second Paris 2024 title in a row when she won the women's 200-metre butterfly on Thursday in an Olympic-record time of two minutes, 3.03 seconds.

McIntosh finished 0.81 seconds ahead runner-up Regan Smith of the United States. Yufei Chang of China won bronze.

"Pretty unreal," McIntosh told CBC Olympics after the race. "The 200 fly I would say is one of my favourite races and it has been since I was a little kid. That last 50, I was just trying to feed off the crowd as much as possible. I knew it was going to be a fight to the wall."

It was the third medal of the Games for the 17-year-old Toronto native, who took silver in the 400-metre freestyle on opening night before grabbing gold in the 400-metre individual medley.

The latest gold gives Canada eight medals in Paris (three gold, two silver and three bronze).

McIntosh becomes the first Canadian to win two individual gold medals in a single Olympics since Alex Baumann in 1984. She is just the fourth Canadian overall to win two golds at a single Summer Olympics.

McIntosh was favoured in the 200-m butterfly after winning the event at her past two world championships. It also was the event her mom, Jill, competed in at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Both of McIntosh's parents and her sister were in attendance Thursday.

"The fact my mom did this event at the Olympics all the way back in 1984 and for me to be doing it now, I know she's unbelievably proud of me," she said.

McIntosh jumped into the pool just over an hour later and helped Canada finish fourth in the 4x200-metre freestyle relay. Mary-Sophie Harvey, Ella Jansen and Julie Brousseau joined McIntosh in the final, which was won by Australia.

In other swimming action, Canada's Kylie Masse qualified for the women's 200-metre backstroke final with the fifth-fastest time in the semifinals.

Masse was fourth earlier this week in the 100-metre backstroke.

The four-time Olympic medallist was full of praise for McIntosh after getting out of the pool Thursday.

"It's incredible," Masse said.

"It's crazy because I feel like people don't understand the actual significance of what she's doing and what she's already accomplished. I've been in this sport a lot longer than she has and she has far surpassed what I have achieved already. I hope people can really see what she's done and use it as inspiration."

Canada's Finlay Knox also is going to a Thursday final. He earned the eighth and final spot in the men's 200-metre individual medley by .06 seconds.

Canada's Josh Liendo will also swim in 50-metre freestyle final. Liendo was originally just outside the top eight after finishing ninth in the semifinals. But after France's Maxime Grousset scratched, Liendo grabbed the final spot in the final.