2022 COMMONWEALTH GAMES
- Friday, July 29 – Wednesday, August 3, 2022
- Birmingham, England
- Sandwell Aquatic Center
- Start Times
- Prelims: 10:30 am local / 5:30 am ET
- Finals: 7:00 pm local / 2:00 pm ET
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Event Schedule
- Entry List (PDF)
- Live Results
On the opening day of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, 15-year-old Summer McIntosh showed that her 4:29.12 from March was no fluke when she beat out that time in the 400 IM, going 4:29.01 to take gold in a dominant fashion. She breaks her old Canadian, World Junior and Commonwealth record, and takes down Hannah Miley‘s Commonwealth Games record time of 4:31.76 from 2014.
McIntosh swam over three seconds faster than her time of 4:32.04 to win the World Championships. The butterfly and backstroke portions of her race at World Championships were considerably faster than they were at Commonwealth Games, but McIntosh had said in an interview with SwimSwam that she had pushed the backstroke too hard in that race and fatigued on her back half.
That clearly did not happen today, as McIntosh was slower than worlds in both fly and back but was over three seconds faster on breast and nearly a second faster on free. In her final 50 meters, she came home in a blistering 29.65 split.
Comparative Splits, Summer McIntosh in March vs. June vs. July 2022:
| Summer McIntosh, March 2022 | Summer McIntosh, World Championships | Summer McIntosh, Commonwealth Games | |
| Fly | 1:00.78 | 59.94 | 1:00.54 |
| Back | 1:09.16 | 1:07.98 | 1:09.33 |
| Breast | 1:18.15 | 1:21.88 | 1:18.30 |
| Free | 1:01.18 | 1:01.69 | 1:00.84 |
| Total | 4:29.12 | 4:32.04 | 4:29.01 |
The 4:29.01 that McIntosh swam maintains her ranking as the third-fastest performer of all-time behind world record holder Katinka Hosszu, and Ye Shiwen, the fastest junior of ever in the event.
Fastest Performers Of All Time In Women’s 400 Individual Medley:
- Katinka Hosszu– 4:26.36
- Ye Shiwen– 4:28.43
- Summer McIntosh– 4:29.01
- Stephanie Rice– 4:29.45
- Kirsty Conventry- 4:29.89
Great performance. Interesting that she lost to Ye Shiwen at freestyle leg despite she is much stronger than Ye at this stroke. But she did actually the same thing: slowing down other strokes in favor of freestyle. And it worked. It could be the way for her to proceed pushing herself at breaststroke and freestyle. And that is exactly what Hosszu did with 4:26. It looks like making a little faster fly and backstroke legs is costly. The lost because of that at breast stroke is exponentially disproportionate to the improvement at first half of the distance.
She’s probably not also benefiting from “better living through pharmaceuticals.” So there’s that
Her next challenge is to be able to relax when someone of near equal ability is alongside her. Summer looked a bit off form in Budapest with Grimes right there. There were lots of strange surges and stalls during the backstroke leg. I mentioned it at the time.
Looking at the comparative splits from other races she probably wanted to back off a little bit but couldn’t afford to let Grimes get away. Grimes is another prodigy so Summer rightfully understood she might be able to shave many seconds. Pushing the backstroke at Budapest meant she was slower in breaststroke.
However, let’s not ignore that was the end of a long meet while this comes first. That’s likely the… Read more »
“Her next challenge is to be able to relax when someone of near equal ability is alongside her.”
It was necessary to find that, it is well known that Sum always trembles on the starting blocks!
And also Women Medley American Record, perhaps…
Great when you see the hype & the hype produces. Amazing swimmer.
Splits of 60, 68, 78 and 60 will give a 4.26.00 WR. It’s a matter of when, not if.
If McIntosh had swam that time at world’s, she would have won gold!
uhhhhhhh, but she DID win gold at Worlds
It’s a joke.
did Ye Shiwen ever swim under 4:32 outside of London?
Yes, she went 4:31 and 4:30 during the 2013 and 2014 Chinese national games
there were no National Games in 2014
in 2013: 2013 Chinese National Games — 4:31.59
Ye, She Win
Great race.Also congrats to team mates Ella Jansen and Tess Cieplucha.Ella with a personal best and only 16 years old.
and she’s summers ESWIM teammate