{"id":614904,"date":"2025-06-12T15:20:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T22:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=614904"},"modified":"2025-06-12T15:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T22:20:11","slug":"summer-mcintosh-credits-coach-fred-vergnoux-with-best-meet-of-my-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/summer-mcintosh-credits-coach-fred-vergnoux-with-best-meet-of-my-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer McIntosh Credits Coach Fred Vergnoux With \u2018Best Meet of My Career\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer McIntosh Credits Coach Fred Vergnoux With \u2018Best Meet of My Career\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Summer McIntosh<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

It went squarely to coach Fred Vergnoux,<\/strong> with whom McIntosh has been training in France.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I owe a lot to Fred, my coach,\u201d McIntosh said after lowering her world record in the 200 individual medley<\/a>. \u201cHe’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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo props to him, he’s done absolutely amazing with me. And we\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> 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\u2019s 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<\/strong> at the Sarasota Sharks. The arrangement led to three gold medals and a silver at the Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n

But McIntosh entered 2025 looking to change things up<\/a>. 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<\/a>: Austin, Texas, to train with the Longhorns postgrad group that includes Regan Smith, Leon Marchand<\/strong> and is overseen by Bob Bowman.<\/strong> 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,<\/strong> so go find the coach that got him there.<\/p>\n

But in between, McIntosh has been elevated by the new ideas injected by Vergnoux. They began working together in January in Vergnoux\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

In five days in Victoria, McIntosh:<\/p>\n