Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh claimed her second gold medal of the Paris Olympics on Thursday as she fended off a strong field in the women’s 200m butterfly final.
The 17-year-old touched the wall in an Olympic record time of two minutes 3.03 seconds at La Defense Arena, 0.81 seconds ahead of American silver medallist Regan Smith.
China’s Zhang Yufei took the bronze.
It was McIntosh’s third medal of the Paris Games, having taken a dominant 400m individual medley gold on Day III of the meet and silver in the 400m freestyle on Day I.
The butterfly win also made McIntosh the first Canadian swimmer ever to claim multiple Olympic golds.
It was a second consecutive clinical swim from McIntosh, who led from the start first fighting off Zhang over the first 100 and then resisting a challenge from Smith as the Chinese swimmer’s threat faded.
Kate Douglass clinched gold in the women’s 200 metres breaststroke, upsetting defending champion Tatjana Smith and delivering the United States team their fourth gold medal of the meet.
The versatile Douglass touched the wall in 2:19.24 at La Defense Arena, 0.36 seconds ahead of silver medallist Smith. Tes Schouten won bronze for the Netherlands.
The victory gave Douglass her first Olympic gold and second of the meet following her silver medal in the women’s 4x100 metres freestyle.
On Wednesday, Swede Sarah Sjostrom’s late decision to enter the women’s 100m freestyle at the Paris Olympics paid off as she trumped a top-quality field to clinch the gold medal in the blue riband sprint. The world record holder showed she still has what it takes as she swept to her second gold medal at the age of 30, eight years after winning the 100m butterfly in Rio.
Those comparisons to Michael Phelps weren’t farfetched at all when it comes to Léon Marchand. They certainly weren’t a burden for the 22-year-old Frenchman.
Marchand completed one of the most audacious doubles in swimming history, winning the 200m butterfly and the 200 breaststroke about two hours apart in front of a home crowd cheering his every stroke.
