Swimming

Conqueror of Queens: Summer McIntosh Bumps Janet Evans from Top 10 All-Time Performers

February 9, 2024

2024 SOUTHERN ZONE SOUTH SECTIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

Thursday, February 8 – Sunday, February 11, 2024
Orlando, Florida
Rosen Aquatic & Fitness Center
LCM (50 meters)
Meet Central
Psych Sheets
Full results under “Southern Zone South Sectional Championships” on MeetMobile

On Thursday night, Canadian 17-year-old Summer McIntosh dropped almost nine seconds in the 800 free to break the Canadian Record, hand Katie Ledecky her first finals loss in the 800 free in 13 years, and send a shockwave through the swimming ecosystem.

But Ledecky isn’t the only behemoth of distance swimming that McIntosh dislodged with that swim. Her performance bumped Janet Evans out of the top 10 all-time performers list in this event.

Top 11 Performers All-Time, Women’s 800 Meter Freestyle (Long Course)

Katie Ledecky, USA – 8:04.79 (2016)
Summer McIntosh, Canada – 8:11.39 (2024)
Li Bingjie, China – 8:13.31 (2023)
Ariarne Titmus, Australia – 8:13.59 (2023)
Rebecca Adlington, Great Britain – 8:14.10 (2008)
Wang Jianjiahe, China – 8:14.64 (2019)
Simona Quadarella, Italy – 8:14.99 (2019)
Lani Pallister, Australia – 8:15.11 (2023)
Lotte Friis, Denmark – 8:15.92 (2009)
Jaz Carlin, Great Britain – 8:15.92 (2009)
Janet Evans, USA – 8:16.22 (1989)

The fact that Evans remained in the top 10, surviving the “Ledecky generation,” for almost 35 years is a feat in-and-among itself. A distance swimmer way ahead of her time, she held the World Record for more than 20 years, one of the few swimmers in history who can claim such a feat.

In the history of women’s distance swimming, there are really three names, all Americans: Debbie Meyer, Janet Evans, and Katie Ledecky. Meyer lowered the World Record progressively by more than 16 seconds in the 1960s. Evans took another 8 off, though it was interrupted by East German Anke Mohring and all of the doping accusations that go along with that.

With all due respect to other greats like Rebecca Adlington (who finally broke through Evans’ record) and Tracey Wickham (who took a big chunk out of the World Record but never won an Olympic medal) those three are the names in this discipline.

McIntosh took out two of them in a single swim, in an event that she doesn’t really race at the international level. While in context, that’s not really a bombshell, in narrative, it begins the conversation of pushing McIntosh toward the greats of all time – though at 17, there’s still a big hill to climb.

McIntosh and Evans are both great distance swimmers, though their similarities sort of stop there. Evans was listed at 5’6, and while McIntosh is listed at 5’8, it appears as though maybe she’s continued to grow since that last official measurement – if Katie Ledecky is 6 feet tall, McIntosh must be 5’9 or 5’10.

Evans was famous for her “perpetual motion” windmill stroke – a technique that few others could sustain over that distance, let alone excel at.

McIntosh, on the other hand, has a more traditional stroke: smooth, low to the water, even smoother than Ledecky. In the 400 free, McIntosh takes roughly 39 strokes-per-length in the middle part of her race. Evans took more like 49.

Going into this weekend, it seemed unlikely that McIntosh would swim the 800 free at the Olympic Games, as the final is in the same session as the women’s 200 IM final, and she has a lot of races on her schedule already.

But that swim on Thursday may have given her the confidence to go after this race, especially beating Ledecky by six seconds, and the 200 IM is no cakewalk either.

Now the real fun begins.

It’s Jordan vs. Kobe. The young uber-talented phenom, the next so-and-so, has to come face-to-face to the so-and-so who has already done it, the swimmer on the Mount Rushmore, the logo’ed one. Kobe won 5 out of 8 career matchups against Jordan. Jordan won 2 of the first 3, while Kobe won 4 of the last 5.

While Ledecky has been caught in races like the 200 free and 400 free, there still hasn’t been anybody in her stratosphere in the 800 or 1500 freestyles. How does she respond? How does one of the most-dominant athletes of any generation of any sport react to a challenge in the event that she is synonymous with? Especially in a year where Ledecky’s times haven’t been as good as they normally are.

We know how she’ll react publicly. She’ll congratulate Summer on a great swim, maybe throw in an understated smile at the fact that she hadn’t lost in 13 years, and that’s all we’ll hear from her on the topic.

Until July in Paris, where Ledecky will proclaim her response in the water. I hope that McIntosh is there to hear it – or maybe see it but not hear it, because her head is underwater, in the next lane, pushing to one of the legendary torch-pass battles ever. No matter who would win it, it would be a banner moment for the sport.

SwimSwam: Conqueror of Queens: Summer McIntosh Bumps Janet Evans from Top 10 All-Time Performers