News Release – August 3, 2025 by SNC
SINGAPORE – Summer McIntosh captured her fourth gold medal of the week on Sunday, capping off what may be the most impressive performance by a woman in World Aquatics Championships history in Singapore.
The Canadian superstar closed out the meet winning her signature event, the 400-metre individual medley. American Katie Ledecky (2015) is the only other woman to win four gold at a single worlds, and fellow legend Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden (2019) is the only other woman to win five individual medals (1G-2S-2B).
It’s McIntosh’s third gold medal in the event, matching the feat she accomplished earlier in the 200-m butterfly. She won both those titles at the 2022 and 2023 worlds. McIntosh also won her first 400-m freestyle and 200-m IM gold medals here.
The 18-year-old from Toronto extended her Canadian record for career individual medals at the long course World Championships to 11, and brought her overall career total to 13, the most by any Canadian in history.
After the meet World Aquatics named McIntosh the Best Female Athlete of the championships.
“I think it was very obvious that my goal was five golds. I just wanted to get my hand on the wall the first five times I fell short of that,” said McIntosh. “I think it’s just going to keep me hungry and push me more than any other meet ever. And that says a lot, and the things I’m learning about the most is going to make me hungry moving into next season and into LA.”
The men’s 4×100 medley relay of Blake Tierney, Oliver Dawson, Ilya Kharun and Josh Liendo swam a Canadian record 3:29.75 to finish fifth. It was the relay’s second time in a day lowering the record that had stood since 2009. In their morning heat, Tierney, Dawson, Kharun and Ruslan Gaziev combined for a 3:30.86 to qualify for the final, led out by a Canadian record 52.95 from Tierney in the 100 backstroke.
“We’re only going to get stronger the next three years,” said Tierney, the oldest member of the group at 23. Liendo is 22, Kharun 20 and Dawson making his world long-course debut at 17. “We’re all quite young in our career and I think we’ll be primed for (the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games).”
On the women’s side, the team of Kylie Masse, Sophie Angus, McIntosh, and Taylor Ruck clocked a time of 3:55.63 to place fifth in the 4×100 medley relay final.
Canada finished the eight-day championships at the 4,800-seat World Aquatics Championships Arena with eight medals (four gold, four bronze).
CBC TV will air a broadcast show Sunday from 2-3 p.m. ET, with key races called by Rob Snoek and Byron MacDonald, as well as a post-event wrap-up show on Saturday from 4-6 p.m.
Reporter Devin Heroux is on site in the mixed zone speaking to Canadians following their races, and is joining The Ready Room show live on YouTube after finals, with Brittany MacLean Campbell hosting from Toronto. The show, including Canadian highlights, athlete interviews and analysis, can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDsQU3UFA4hWNpRkQUQ9V2q1weYX0Z5tT
Swimming Canada and @cbcolympics are also posting content across their digital platforms.
Nearly 2,500 athletes from 206 registered countries competed across six aquatic sports at Singapore 2025. A record 77 medal events were contested, with a record prize money pool of more than $6 million US, in addition to a $30,000 world record bonus in swimming.
Full results: https://www.omegatiming.com/2025/world-aquatics-championships-swm-live-results
SNC