Summer McIntosh Back in Water En Route to World Short Course Champs; Coach Brent Arckey: ‘We’ll Play With Some Other Events’
Six weeks have elapsed since Summer McIntosh dazzled at the Olympic Games, walking away with four individual medals in Paris – including titles in the 200 butterfly and both butterfly disciplines. Now, the 18-year-old is back in the water after a brief break, again working with coach Brent Arckey with the Sarasota Sharks.
Arckey was in the Philadelphia area over the weekend as one of the featured speakers at the annual Eastern States Swim Clinic. Arckey, who was on the Canadian coaching staff for the Paris Games, provided a variety of talks to the coaches and swimmers in attendance at the clinic, with his work with McIntosh a focal point.
“It’s certainly been an interesting fall,” Arckey said in an interview with Swimming World. “I took a little time off. She took a little time off and now we’re getting back into it. I’m proud of everything and it’s nice to take a deep breath and evaluate everything and where we want to go moving forward.”
As McIntosh returns to training and working toward the World Short Course Championships in Budapest in December, this fall will also provide an opportunity to reap the rewards of her exceptional Olympic campaign. She’ll handle some sponsorship responsibilities and additional demands for her time, which McIntosh will navigate with the support of her family.
Arckey indicated that the plan for McIntosh was to step away from the pool for two weeks after the Olympic Games, but the 18-year-old took a little more time before returning to training. Yet, once she hopped back in the water, McIntosh was hungry to embrace the workload designed by Arckey.
“She’s ready to go,” Arckey said. “She has a few engagements she’s going to do, but she’s excited to get back to it. She certainly loves the work and loves the day-to-day aspect of training. But she’s also very good about turning it on and turning it off. Her weekends are her weekends, but she comes ready to work on Mondays because she takes care of herself on the weekends.”
McIntosh’s schedule has been mapped out through December, with the World Short Course Champs capping the 2024 campaign. Beyond that competition, Arckey will soon map out the next steps, including what McIntosh will race at the 2025 World Championships in Singapore.
As the world’s most-versatile female swimmer, options will be aplenty for McIntosh. Her Olympic schedule featured the 400 freestyle, 200 butterfly, 200 IM and 400 IM. She’s also among the world’s premier performers in the 200 freestyle and 800 freestyle, and her backstroke marks another area where McIntosh rates as one of the globe’s best.
“We’re certainly excited about that,” Arckey said of McIntosh’s choices. “We want to play with some other events, especially the backstroke. We’ll be doing some other things and have some fun while racing for the next year or so. Maybe there will be a couple of doors that will open up, and something will show up that we want to keep developing. That’s the best part about an IMer. You can work on a bunch of different things.”
Exciting news. Thanks for the update.
Congratulations to Coach Arckey on such a successful achievement with coaching generational talent Summer McIntosh, who has made all of Canada extremely proud♡. Can’t wait for the upcoming season!