In a race in which, unlike the 400m medley, where McIntosh was almost six seconds ahead of her closest rival, she had to fight until the last few metres to claim victory.
This was reflected in the 81 hundredths of a second advantage over the American Regan Smith, who, as happened three years ago in Tokyo, had to settle for the silver medal after touching the wall with a time of 2:03.84 minutes.
Completing the podium was China’s Yufei Zhang, the current Olympic champion, who was relegated two places on the podium and took the bronze medal with a time of 2:05.09 minutes.
It was the swimmer who was responsible for unleashing hostilities with a very fast start that allowed her to lead the final during the first hundred meters, closely followed by Summer McIntosh who was 16 hundredths of a second behind.
An insufficient advantage to contain the acceleration of the Canadian who faced the last length with an advantage of 73 hundredths over a Zhang who was beginning to show signs of exhaustion and 80 over the American Regan Smith.
But despite attempts by the American to get closer, the young Summer McIntosh did not give an inch and maintained her lead until the end to take her second gold medal at the Paris Games.
