Teen swimming phenom Summer McIntosh ends a remarkable 2024 season being named recipient of the Northern Star Award (formerly the Lou Marsh Trophy), awarded to Canada’s top athlete during each calendar year.
The 18-year-old soared to new heights in 2024, dominating in the pool at the Summer Olympics while adding to her already impressive resumé with a noteworthy performance at the World Aquatics Championships.
McIntosh dazzled in front in the Paris Olympic crowd, winning three gold medals — a Canadian single-Olympic Games record — and a silver, while setting two world records. Her four total medals helped her join Penny Oleksiak as the only Canadians to win four medals at a single Games, as McIntosh was the first swimmer since Oleksiak in 2016 to win the award and the ninth swimmer overall.
She set a world record in the 200m individual medley with a time of 2:06.56 while also setting a record in the 200m butterfly, finishing the race in 2:03.03.
The Toronto native added another first-place finish in the 400m individual medley — an event in which she set the world record earlier in the year at the Canadian Olympic Trials — and finished second in the 400m freestyle.
Her standout performance earned her the honour of being the Canadian flag bearer for the closing ceremony, a nomination from the Canadian Olympic Committee that is awarded to the Olympian who performed exceptionally at the Games.
But McIntosh wasn’t satisfied with just Olympic triumph.
The former Etobicoke Swim Club member set a new standard in December’s FINA World Aquatics Championships, finishing the competition with three gold medals, a silver and a bronze, while setting three world records in Budapest.
McIntosh swam to glory in the 400m individual medley (4:15.48), 200m butterfly (1:59.32) and 400m butterfly (3:50.25) events, setting short course world records — 25m length pool as opposed to Olympic-size 50m length — in all three events.
She added to her lucrative medal haul in 2024 with a second-place finish in the 200m backstroke and placed third in the 4x100m relay with teammates Oleksiak, Mary-Sophie Harvey and Ingrid Wilm.
Her successful 2024 season with a combined nine medals between the Olympics and World Championships earned her 2024 World Aquatics Female Athlete of the Year honours while being named The Canadian Press Female Athlete of the Year to go along with her Northern Star Award as the country’s top athlete.
The Northern Star Award is awarded annually by the Toronto Star in consultation with journalists countrywide.
The finalists for 2024 included Connor McDavid, who led the Edmonton Oilers to the Stanley Cup Final; Natalie Spooner of the PWHL’s Toronto Sceptres, who led the league in scoring and won the inaugural league MVP; Ethan Katzburg, who became Canada’s first hammer throw Olympic champion and the youngest hammer throw gold medalist of all-time; and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was the recipient of the 2023 Northern Star Award and led the Canadian men’s basketball team to their first Olympic appearance since 2000.