By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam
At the recent Canadian Swimming Trials, Summer McIntosh had one of the best single-meet performances of all time. She set three world records and two Canadian Records, and in the latter which she came far closer to a pair of seemingly untouchable marks than some would have predicted.
That got us thinking about where this ranks on the list of individual all-time single-meet performances in the 21st Century. Here’s five of the best, kicking off with a couple of Honorable Mentions.
HM – Katinka Hosszu: 2016 Short Course World Championships, Windsor
Hosszu had a phenomenal meet at the 2016 Olympics, where she won three golds and a silver and set a world record in the women’s 400 IM. However, that was not her best meet of the year: that came in Windsor, Ontario in December.
She was entered in a staggering nine events there and, despite not setting any world records, came away with seven gold medals and two silvers. She swept the IMs, did the 100/200 double in both backstroke and butterfly, and was only half a second behind Federica Pellegrini in the 200 free.
This is the one of only two short course performances on the list, and does of course come with the caveat that attendance at these championships is spottier than the long course editions, but nine medals, all silver or better, with no relays – we’ve never seen such a performance before and are not likely to in the future either.
HM – Caeleb Dressel: 2020 ISL Final, Budapest
Dressel has had plenty of phenomenal long course meets: The 2019 World Championships were probably his best, but he was the best male swimmer at the 2017 Worlds (potentially joint with Adam Peaty) and at the Tokyo Olympics as well. However, in terms of individual performances, it’s hard to overlook one that sparkled like the ISL Final in 2020.
Dressel set three world records and two American Records in just two days, and was nigh-on unbeatable. He won all five individual events, all by at least 1%, including by a margin of 3.8% in the 100 IM, where he jackpotted almost the entire field.
Dressel almost single-handedly dragged the Cali Condors to their victory in the final, and threw down a 26.0 50 breaststroke in the skins. Over that weekend, there was almost nothing he couldn’t do in the Duna Arena.
5 – Ian Thorpe: 2001 Long Course World Championships, Fukuoka
Thorpe was beaten in the 200 free at his home Olympics in Sydney the year before, and made light work of Pieter van den Hoogenband in Fukuoka as he nearly cracked 1:44. That broke his own World Record he’d set at Australian Trials four months before and was 1.29 seconds quicker than van den Hoogenband’s best of 1:45.35.
He added wins in the 400 freestyle and the 800, in what was his first real foray into international waters at that distance. In the former, he was over two seconds ahead of Grant Hackett and only a second ahead in the 800, but Hackett was himself a generational swimmer who would go on to win the 1500 by 24 seconds at this meet.
Third place in the 400 was five seconds behind Thorpe; in the 800, they were 12 seconds back. All three swims here still rank in the top 15 all-time.
Thorpe was a special freestyle talent, and 2001 was the pinnacle of that, with the 200 and 800 times he set here remaining his fastest ever. The times he swam in all three distances would have won a medal at every meet held, save for the 200 in Rome in 2009 and the 800 in, fittingly, Fukuoka in 2023.
4 – Katie Ledecky: 2016 Olympic Games, Rio
If the 1500 had been an Olympic event for the women in Rio, Ledecky could be even higher on this list. As it was, she had to settle for three individual golds, two World Records and the second-largest margin of victory in the 800 freestyle ever after Debbie Meyer in 1968.
She was absurdly dominant in the 400 and 800 freestyles, with both of her heats swims being faster than the #2 swimmer all-time. In the 800, she was then eight seconds quicker in the final.
It’s tough to have a high percentage margin of victory in the distance events, but at 2.34%, Ledecky’s 800 was the second-largest of any event in Rio – just ahead of her 400 free. In first was Adam Peaty, who was absolutely dominant in the 100 breast; however, that was his only individual swim of the Games
Largest % Margin of Victory, Rio 2016 Olympics
Men’s 100 breast: Adam Peaty – 2.73 % Women’s 800 free: Katie Ledecky – 2.34% Women’s 400 free: Katie Ledecky – 2.02% Women’s 400 IM: Katinka Hosszu – 1.80% Women’s 100 fly: Sarah Sjostrom – 1.77%She then went on to beat Sarah Sjostrom, Emma McKeon and Federica Pellegrini in the 200 freestyle – something of a who’s who of the freestyle world over the last decade-and-a-half. Hers was the #4 performance all-time in the event at this point and the #2 in textile. To be able to come down to the 200 and beat that trio in addition to her absolute domination of the 400 and 800 is something otherworldly.
3 – Leon Marchand: 2024 Olympic Games, Paris
Paris Olympic swimming finals, Day 5: Marchand does the double. The fencing finals had to be stopped during the 200 fly as the cheering from the crowd within the fencing hall had become too loud. Marchand was adorned on Paris’s only skyscraper. He quite easily could have had a fantastic meet and not managed to live up to some expectations.
He did both in Paris. Four gold medals, four Olympic Records, and a sense of inevitability about him that only the very, very best athletes have.
No swimmer other than Marchand has ever medalled in the 200 breaststroke and 200 butterfly. Certainly, no swimmer has held the Olympic Records in both, or won Olympic gold in both, within an hour. The level of versatility shown there is almost scandalous.
In the all-time rankings, Marchand swam the #3 time in the 200 fly, the #2 time in the 200 breast, the #2 time in the 200 IM and the #2 time in the 400 IM. In all four of those events, he’s now faster than Phelps was. This was Marchand’s Beijing 2008 moment.
2 – Summer McIntosh: 2025 Canadian Swimming Trials, Victoria
The only one of these performances in long course that was not at a major championship, it cannot be overlooked just how good McIntosh’s times were in events that typically benefit from some competition.
Five Canadian Records, three World Records, the #2 swim all-time in the 200 fly and the #3 swim all-time in the 800 free is slightly silly for a Championship meet, let alone Trials, and she did this without a single day off, swimming days 1-5.
Event 400 free Over five seconds clear of #4 all-time 800 free Over five seconds clear of #3 all-time and within a second of Ledecky’s WR 200 fly Within half a second of the WR, over 1.5 seconds ahead of the textile #2 athlete (Regan Smith) 200 IM First swimmer under 2:06, matches Hosszu with three swims in the top 10 all-time 400 IM Over 2.5 seconds clear of Katinka Hosszu, owns six of the top seven swims all-timeThe fact that she did this without anyone within 2% of her in any event is staggering. Mary-Sophie Harvey in the 200 IM was the only swimmer to finish less than seven seconds behind the 18-year-old at the meet.
McIntosh set four World-leading times, and in all of those there is no swimmer within 2.5 seconds of her. In the 400 IM, Emma Weyant at #2 is 10.3 seconds behind. Looking at the swimmers on the all-time rankings she’s named against, you have both the greatest distance freestyler of all-time and the greatest IM swimmer of all time. She may well take both crowns before she retires.
She’s eerily reminiscent of the next name, in both dominance and range – and in being the first person to set a World Record in the Victoria Pool since they did so 19 years ago.
1 – Michael Phelps: 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing
Five individual gold medals. Four individual World Records and one individual Olympic Record, all against a field that was shattering records themselves. Phelps was the only swimmer to win more than two individual golds in Beijing and was quite frankly phenomenal all week.
It’s telling that every one of the four World Records he set was his own – this was a swimmer who was already on top of the world after winning four individual golds in Melbourne the previous summer.
Laszlo Cseh, who would probably be loudly in the conversation for greatest swimmer of the 21st century if he hadn’t been competing against Phelps, said in 2021 of his longtime rival:
“…he was the main source of my motivation, as I could get up each day and go for training with the target: I wanted to beat him next time”
When you are the primary source of motivation for someone who was one of the five best male swimmers in the world at that point, demolishing all of your own times as well as the field is a performance that would require something special to outshine.
At the point Phelps touched the wall in each of the following four events in Beijing he was at least 0.99 seconds ahead of the #2 swimmer all-time.
Event All-time #2 Phelps in Beijing 200 free 1:44.06 (Ian Thorpe) 1:42.96 200 fly 1:53.86 (Gil Stovall) 1:52.03 200 IM 1:55.22 (Ryan Lochte) 1:54.23 400 IM 4:06.08 (Ryan Lochte) 4:03.84Laszlo Cseh did close the gap in the 200 fly in Beijing, going 1:52.70, but Phelps was still far, far, far clear of the rest of the world in 2008.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Just How Good Was Summer McIntosh at Trials? The Best Single-Meet Performances of the 2000s
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