Swimming gems McIntosh and Popovici conquer the Olympic Games

Pagain. Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh claimed the first Olympic gold medal of her nascent career on Monday with a landslide victory in the 400m individual medley at the Paris Games. Romanian swimming star David Popovici also made his Olympic debut.

McIntosh, 17, had already claimed her first Olympic medal on swimming’s opening night, taking silver in the 400 freestyle — behind Australia’s Ariarne Titmus and ahead of American Katie Ledecky.

Now, McIntosh will boast a medal in the best color of all.

She set the pace for the first half of the grueling event — the butterfly and backstroke — to leave all but American Katie Grimes behind. McIntosh came within a hair’s breadth of breaking her own world record but couldn’t hold on to it. She clocked 4:27.71 minutes, three seconds shy of the mark (4:24.38) she set at the Olympic qualifiers in Canada in May. But she was fast enough to claim the Olympic title.

The United States completed the podium with Grimes (4:33.40) and Emma Weyant (4:34.93).

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In the men’s 200m, David Popovici also won in a thrilling final. The Romanian won in 1:44.72 seconds, 0.02 ahead of Britain’s Matthew Richards and 0.07 ahead of American Luke Hobson. After this victory, the 19-year-old swimmer is determined to follow in the footsteps of Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband, the last competitor to achieve a double in the 100m and 200m freestyle since Sydney 2000.

Ariarne Titmus was the one who failed to achieve her goal. The Australian, who had just won the event of the century, was unable to beat her compatriot Mollie O’Callaghan, who won the duel in the 200 freestyle, with a record included. O’Callaghan completed the distance in 1:53.27 minutes, better than the 1:53.50 set in Tokyo 2020 by Titmus.

In the other final of the day, South African record holder Tatjana Smith led the way in the 100-meter breaststroke.