McIntosh swims fastest 200 fly in 15 years for gold

Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh stormed to Olympic women’s 200m butterfly gold on Thursday with the second fastest time in history and the quickest since 2009.
The 17-year-old hit the wall in an Olympic record 2min 03.03sec ahead of America’s Regan Smith (2:03.84) and Chinese defending champion Zhang Yufei (2:05.09).
Zhang went out fast and was ahead at the halfway mark before McIntosh turned on the afterburners to surge home.
Back-to-back 200m butterfly world champion in 2022 and 2023, McIntosh has been getting progressively faster.
Her time at La Defense Arena was second only to Chinese world record-holder Liu Zige’s 2:01.81, which was set in 2009 during the super-suit era.
It was McIntosh’s third medal in Paris after winning the 400m medley and taking silver behind Ariarne Titmus in the 400m freestyle.
The Canadian is also favourite in the 200m medley.