Without a moment’s hesitation, unflinching really, legendary swimming coach Bob Bowman jumped to his answer when asked if the many comparisons made between the greatest swimmer ever — Michael Phelps — and Canadian swimming sensation Summer McIntosh were warranted and fair.
“I think it’s very fair because they swim almost identical programs. They’re generational talents, they work at a very high level and so I certainly understand the similarities,” Bowman said inside his coach’s office at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center on Saturday evening.
“I want to take her as far as she can go. And if she does that, I think she’ll end up being right up there.“
McIntosh is coming off last summer’s world championships in Singapore where she won four individual gold medals and a bronze — Phelps is the only swimmer ever to have won five individual gold medals at a single world championships.
Bowman helped shape Phelps into a gold medal-winning machine, all while guiding him through the hoopla and attention that came with Phelps being that dominant.
“I think that as she grows and there are more demands placed on her, particularly leading into L.A., how we manage all that will be very important, and that’s where I’ve had this unique experience with Michael where I understand that part,” Bowman said.
While she just missed out on five gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships, the Canadian teenage star gained valuable experience moving forward.
For the last five months Bowman has been coaching McIntosh as a part of his pro team at the University of Texas. He’s the Director of Swimming and head men’s coach of the Longhorns swimming and diving teams — and also trains a pro group that McIntosh is now part of.
The Toronto native made the move to Austin to join forces with the coach who helped lead Phelps to 23 Olympic gold medals ahead of the L.A. 2028 Games.
McIntosh breaks 17-year-old record
On Saturday evening, McIntosh broke her second pool record in two consecutive nights during the Pro Swim Series meet. Her time of four minutes 28.13 seconds in the 400m individual medley took down Kirsty Coventry’s — the now IOC President — record set in 2008.
McIntosh’s time was about four-and-a-half seconds slower than her world record time in the event but both coach and athlete were pleased with the performance.
“I liked her breaststroke, the first part. We’ve been working on that. She got a little tired at the end. I did not like her backstroke. We need to spend more time on that, but overall, it’s a pretty solid swim,” Bowman said.
“It’s pretty heavy training now, probably more than she’s been under for a while.”
Bowman does not mince his words when it comes to breaking down a race or training session, something McIntosh craves, sometimes brutal honesty, and has been thriving under since arriving.
Their assessment of how the 400m IM went was quite similar.
“I’m pretty happy with that. I mean, my breaststroke was pretty good, but I talked to Bob after my race. The backstroke definitely needs to be a bit better than that, but I felt pretty strong about the race. Like it wasn’t brain numbingly painful, which sometimes that can happen,” McIntosh said.
Swimming Canada high-performance director John Atkinson attended the Pro Swim Series this week in Austin — it was a chance for him to check in on McIntosh and touch base with Bowman.
Atkinson has been clear about his philosophy when it comes to Canadian swimmers attending other programs — that he supports it and is doing his best to ensure the athlete’s best interests are being looked after.
“Bob will guide and he will challenge and he will look after Summer. I had meetings with him this week and we were completely aligned as to how he’ll work with the national program, and that’s important that Summer knows that Bob sees us as a resource from Swimming Canada to help where we can,” Atkinson said.
“Summer and Bob know where they’re going and what they’re doing, and that’s all that really matters.”
McIntosh says she has immense respect for Bowman, not only because of his resumé over the years but how he shows up at the pool for training sessions and competitions.
“He’s an amazing coach and we’re just getting started and getting to know each other. But so far it’s been great. He’s extremely down to earth and actually very easy to talk to, even though he is the Bob Bowman,” she said.
“He comes on deck every day with a great attitude. He wants to be there. He coaches every single metre that we do, he’s fully engaged in the practice. I just think that kind of rubs off on all of the swimmers and we kind of carry that sort of attitude towards our own swimming as well.”
Mutual admiration
There is mutual admiration, as Bowman was aware of her talents from afar but now as he gets a closer look as her coach, he’s wildly impressed.
“What makes her great is her mindset for sure. She is kind of unflappable in the training and also in the meets, at least from what I’ve seen so far. I haven’t taken her to a big meet, but I’ve seen her at these meets — she sticks to the plan. She focuses on what she needs to do, and she’s willing to do the preparation, which is the important part,” Bowman said.
“And so when she comes in every day of practice, I can give her anything and she will say thank you and what else do you want me to do. That’s her attitude. It’s like whatever it takes, she is willing to do.”
The highly competitive training environment is laced with the who’s who in the swimming world, including Olympic champions Leon Marchard, Hubert Kos, Simone Manuel and Regan Smith — it’s exactly where McIntosh wants to be.
“I only knew a few people before I moved down here and obviously it’s very intimidating knowing this is the best college team on the men’s side and one of the best on the women’s side. And then of course, the pros, all of them are Olympic medallists, some of them Olympic champions. So I think that was the only thing that was a bit nerve-wracking, the social aspect and getting to know everyone and trying to fit in,” McIntosh said.
“As soon as I got here, that kind of all just went away immediately and everyone was so welcoming and nice to me, and I think we all share the passion of the sport, so everyone gets along really well and everyone wants to make each other better.”
Big goals for L.A. 2028
Not only better, but the best. That’s what McIntosh wants for her career, to be remembered as one of the greats.
Bowman says she made that abundantly clear during their first meeting.
“She’s got big goals. I know exactly what they are. We talked about them on minute one. She told me everything she wants to do,” Bowman said.
“They’re all doable and I think we have a plan to get there. I just think she has to enjoy these steps along the way and just keep feeling like she’s getting better incrementally. And if we do that for the next two years, she’ll be where she wants to be.”
To be very clear, those big goals include winning five gold medals at the L.A. Olympics. It’s something McIntosh has become very comfortable vocalizing to her coach and many others.
“I think when you’re chasing something that is as hard as getting five individual gold medals at an Olympic Games, you have to be able to say it out loud and you have to be able to share that dream with your coaches and people who are surrounding you, because it’s not going to come easy,” McIntosh said.
“It’s something that you have to devote yourself to every single day. Even saying it out loud to Bob Bowman as well, I feel like it kind of makes it more real for me and of course he’s been through someone trying to get eight gold medals before, so he knows what it takes to get there.”
Closing in on another world record
And while racking up gold medals is always on her mind, McIntosh was also open to talking about world records — specifically the 200m butterfly world record she’s been tracking down and getting very close to breaking.
“I think if there’s one more world record I would want to get, if I could only get one more, it would definitely be the 200 fly just because it is my favourite event and I think that’s by far one of the hardest, if not the hardest, world record to get on the women’s side,” McIntosh said.
“I definitely want to try and take that one down just as I was 0.18 at the last world championships from it.”
The 200m butterfly world record is held by China’s Liu Zige with a time of 2:01.81, set at the 2009 Chinese National Games during the super-suit era.
Both McIntosh and Bowman acknowledge they’re still getting to know each other, figuring out what works and what doesn’t work — they aren’t trying to show their cards to fellow competitors so early in their partnership together.
“We’re trying to really think long term to the end of the summer, so we’re not trying to wow anybody with what we’re doing right now because she needs to put in the work, so that’s what we’re doing,” Bowman said.
“I think her avenues of improvement right now are strength. She can get stronger physically. I think that’s very important. There are some technical things we’re still working on.”
Striking a balance
While McIntosh continues to work on her swimming, she’s also enrolled in an accounting class at the University of Texas, beginning in less than two weeks. It’s something she says is important in helping provide balance outside of the pool.
“Getting a university education has always been very important to me, and my high school was kind of dragged out because of the timing of the Olympics. It’s really important to get an education. You can’t swim forever,” she said.
For now, Bowman and McIntosh find themselves pushing each other each day to be that much better, something they both get a lot of enjoyment from.
“She comes to the pool and takes care of all her business. I love that because she has to own it and she has to make it happen. So she’s incredibly mature,” Bowman said.
“I think it’s important that she kind of keeps learning and growing. That’s where you stay engaged, right? And same with Michael. Like when we started running out of things that were new, it got old. So, fortunately, everything we do for her is new this year. We only have two more years to go, but we’ll keep varying things. We’ll keep changing the emphasis.”
