Summer McIntosh Credits Coach Fred Vergnoux With ‘Best Meet of My Career’
Summer McIntosh called the Bell Canadian Trials the “best meet of my career” Wednesday night at the Saanich Commonwealth Place. And she quickly pivoted from praising herself to apportioning credit.
It went squarely to coach Fred Vergnoux, with whom McIntosh has been training in France.
“I think I owe a lot to Fred, my coach,” McIntosh said after lowering her world record in the 200 individual medley. “He’s been absolutely amazing throughout this whole journey these past few months. He’s really taken me to the next level in the sport and pushed me farther. I’ve gone way faster than I ever could have imagined.
“So props to him, he’s done absolutely amazing with me. And we’ve only known each other for so long, so I feel that connection so quickly. It’s been amazing, and I think amazing for us, as well, having so much fun while doing it. And since we enjoy it so much, we continue to go faster and faster, because I think the faster I swim, the happier I am.”
Much has been made of the training location of McIntosh, the 18-year-old phenom who set three world records and five Canadian records in five days in Victoria, British Columbia, this week. Pool closures during the pandemic moved the Toronto native from the club of her youth, Etobicoke Swimming, Swimming Canada’s High Performance Center in Toronto. After her debut at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, she made the bold decision to uproot her life for Florida, forging a prosperous partnership with Brent Arckey at the Sarasota Sharks. The arrangement led to three gold medals and a silver at the Paris Olympics.
But McIntosh entered 2025 looking to change things up. She split with Arckey, effective at the end of this summer. Her sampling of other training groups led to what many viewed as the most logical destination: Austin, Texas, to train with the Longhorns postgrad group that includes Regan Smith, Leon Marchand and is overseen by Bob Bowman. Like Marchand, McIntosh is making a simple calculation. Her goals for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles are as lofty and have only been accomplished by Michael Phelps, so go find the coach that got him there.
But in between, McIntosh has been elevated by the new ideas injected by Vergnoux. They began working together in January in Vergnoux’s base in Antibes. McIntosh was going to improve no matter who was helping her devise sets and workouts. But this level speaks to a commensally beneficial relationship between swimmer and coach.
In five days in Victoria, McIntosh:
- Reclaimed her world record in the 400 free, going 3:54.18 to slash 1.2 seconds off Ariarne Titmus’ mark.
- Dropped the No. 3 all-time performance in the 800 free, frightening Katie Ledecky’s month-old standard by going 8:05.07.
- Erased Katinka Hosszu’s world record in the 200 IM that had stood for two months short of 10 years with a 2:05.70.
- Assaulted the seemingly impregnable super-suited 200 fly record of Liu Zige from 2009, getting within a half-second in 2:02.26 for the first 2:02 time in history and the No. 2 performance all-time.
- Trimmed her world record in the 400 IM to 4:23.65, a reduction of seven tenths that beat a fellow elite 400 IMer in Mary-Sophie Harvey by nearly 12 seconds.
Vergnoux has had plenty of success in Europe through his career. He spent nine years in Spain, leading Mireia Belmonte to Olympic gold. Before that, he was one of Britain’s top coaches. He coached for a year in Belgium that helped supercharge that program before heading to Antibes in a joint project with the French Swimming Federation and World Aquatics that gives swimmers from a variety of nations access to world-class facilities.
Such is McIntosh’s talent that none of it is surprising. But to go from a great meet to an utterly historic performance required someone to harness all that ability. That was Vergnoux, who deserves ample credit.
“To know that he fully believes in me is absolutely amazing,” McIntosh said. “And I think that’s such an important relationship to have, because I 100% believe in him in this role, and that’s so important to have the belief in each other. I think that bond really keeps us together and keeps us moving forward.”
I’m thrilled with the Antibes situation and Fred! Obviously it works like crazy. After Saanich, I have been tending toward what other pundits are saying: Maybe she should stay? But on deep consideration, what I know is this — these two things:
First, Summer is going to honor her word. Besides that, she isn’t the type not to have thought it through thoroughly and unchangeably before announcing it… Austin, that is.
Second, the reality, strange as it might seem to us out here, is… Summer is, or at least until now has been, a swimming gypsy! Early career circumstances (early adolescence) sort of set it up like this for her intractably; amazingly, she has embraced it devotedly, magnificently.
Others might find such a continuing shuffle of places and people unsettling, but this gal is a jet-setter, not just a record-setter. With her frequent flier miles, she probably pays no fares! What an athlete… what a person.