Canada’s Summer McIntosh takes down Liu’s ‘supersuit’ butterfly world record
Teenager knocks down last remaining women’s record set with banned swimsuit, hitting new mark in 200m butterfly
Summer McIntosh wiped out the last “supersuit” world record in women’s swimming on Sunday with a stunning victory in the 200 metres butterfly at Canada’s trials for the Pan Pacific Championships.
The Olympic and world champion touched the wall in two minutes, 1.65 seconds in the final in Montreal, eclipsing Liu Zige’s long-standing record of 2:01.81 at China’s National Games in October 2009.
Liu’s mark was set months before polyurethane suits were banned from global competition and was considered one of the hardest records to break.
But McIntosh has been chipping away.
The 19-year-old became the second woman to break 2:02.00 at last year’s world championships and now owns five of the six fastest times in the event.
“As you can see my emotions, this means the absolute world,” she said poolside. “Growing up, this is the one world record I thought I would never break and to do it tonight is really special in front of a home crowd.