Summer McIntosh vs USA in 400m medley final predictions: Can the Americans stop the teenager from winning her first gold medal at the Paris Olympics?

Summer McIntosh, who is currently the world record-holder of the 400m individual medley (IM), will be squaring off against two of the USA's swimmers in the 400m IM finals at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She displayed a dominant performance in heat 2 of the discipline by clocking 4:37.35 on day 3 of the Summer Games.

McIntosh trounced Mio Narita and Ella Ramsay who clocked 4:37.84 and 4:39.04 to claim the second and third positions, respectively. In heat 1 of the competition, American swimmer Emma Weyant had taken the lead by posting 4:36.27 and Katie Grimes claimed the second position by clocking 4:37.24.

The finals are yet to be held, when McIntosh will be competing against Team USA swimmers Emma Weyant and Katie Grimes. The Canadian swimmer currently holds the record of being the fastest in the 400m IM, having set a world record of 4:24.38 in the event at the 2024 Canadian Olympic Swimming Trials.

The 22-year-old won consecutive titles in the discipline at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships. In the 2022 Championships, McIntosh clinched gold in the 400m IM by trouncing Grimes by 0.63s. Similarly, in the 2023 Championships, she again defeated Grimes in the 400m IM by clocking a time of 4:27.11 and with a difference of 4.30s. Here, Weyant claimed third place.

Further, at the 2023 US Open Swimming Championships, the Canadian again won gold in the 400m IM, defeating Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko by a difference of almost eight seconds.

Summer McIntosh is one of the heavy favorites for gold in the 400m IM at the 2024 Olympics, considering her previous performances. The finals are slated for July 30, 2024.

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Summer McIntosh won her first Olympic medal at the 2024 Games

Summer McIntosh won her first Olympic medal in Paris by claiming second place in the 400m freestyle event. She recorded a time of 3:58.37, standing behind Ariarne Titmus, who claimed gold with her time of 3:57.49, and trouncing Katie Ledecky, who claimed third place in the event.

In a post-swim interview, she opened up about her podium finish and said that she was happy overall with her swim:

"Going into tonight I really just wanted to put my best foot forward and race as hard as I could. Overall I'm pretty happy with the result. An Olympics is always pretty nerve-racking, and there's a lot of anticipation going into each race, so I am kind of learning how to deal with that and also trying to feed off the crowd."

"Any time I get to race either of those girls it's an amazing opportunity and I learn so much. They push me to be better and make me put my best foot forward, so it was definitely a good race," she added.

Summer McIntosh has now reached the 400m individual medley finals, with her eyes set on attaining her first Olympic gold.