Canadian Olympic champion Summer McIntosh makes history with 200m butterfly world record
by By The News Digital · The News InternationalCanadian swimming star Summer McIntosh has broken the women's 200-metre butterfly world record at the Canadian swimming trials, ending one of the sport's longest-standing marks.
The 19-year-old from Toronto finished in two minutes, 1.65 seconds on Sunday, beating the previous world record of 2:01.81 set by China's Liu Zige in 2009 during the super-suit era.
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"That was the one world record that I've always dreamt of as a kid. To now do it is really incredible," an emotional McIntosh said.
The previous record had stood for 17 years and was widely considered one of the toughest to break.
McIntosh had come within 0.18 seconds of the mark at last year's world championships before finally surpassing it in Montreal.
"It was a really emotional moment for me. This is something that I've been working on for a really long time, and getting so close to it after world championships in Singapore, then it became a possibility."
The three-time Olympic champion now holds four long-course world records, adding the 200m butterfly to her existing records in the 400 freestyle, 400 individual medley and 200 individual medley.
McIntosh's mother, former Olympic swimmer Jill McIntosh, called the achievement "extra special."
"That world record was Summer's dream as a 10-year-old. This shows you when you dream bigger than you can possibly imagine, you can get anything done,” said Jill McIntosh.