By James Sutherland on SwimSwam
All quotes courtesy of Devin Heroux of CBC Sports.
Bob Bowman and Summer McIntosh spoke highly of one another during the Pro Swim Series stop in Austin earlier this month, touching on everything from comparisons to Michael Phelps to McIntosh’s lofty goals for the LA Olympics.
Speaking with CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux, Bowman praised McIntosh and what he’s seen from the 19-year-old since she joined his training group at the University of Texas last fall.
“What makes her great is her mindset for sure,” Bowman said, according to Heroux. “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.
“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.”
McIntosh said Bowman’s investment and enthusiasm day in and day out sets the tone for the entire group.
“He’s an amazing coach, and we’re just getting started and getting to know each other,” McIntosh told Heroux. “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.
“He comes on deck every day with a great attitude. He wants to be there. He coaches every single meter 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.”
Even before she joined Bowman, McIntosh had been drawing Phelps comparisons over the last few years, due to both her sheer dominance in multiple disciplines and, more specifically, competing in many of the same events as Phelps.
“I think it’s very fair because they swim almost identical programs,” Bowman told Heroux regarding the comparisons between Phelps and McIntosh, who both have the 200 fly, 200 IM and 400 IM as arguably their three best events.
“They’re generational talents, they work at a very high level, and so I certainly understand the similarities.”
The only difference between the two program-wise at their peak is that Phelps swam the 200 free and 100 fly as his fourth and fifth events, while McIntosh is the world record holder in the 400 free and went up to the 800 free at last summer’s World Championships, though she has spoken about getting back to the top of her game in the 200 free recently.
“I want to take her as far as she can go,” Bowman said. “And if she does that, I think she’ll end up being right up there.“
At the 2025 World Championships, prior to joining Bowman, McIntosh became just the second woman ever to win four individual golds at a single edition of the meet, joining Katie Ledecky, and she also became the second woman to win five individual medals at a single edition of the meet, joining Sarah Sjostrom.
The only swimmer who has ever won five individual gold medals at a single edition of the World Championships, or a single Olympics, is Phelps, who, guided by Bowman, accomplished the feats in back-to-back years at the 2007 Worlds in Melbourne and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
McIntosh and Bowman were open about their objective of five individual golds at the LA Olympics.
“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.”
Bowman said, “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.
“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.”
McIntosh also spoke about another one of her goals, breaking the super-suited world record in the women’s 200 fly, while Bowman touched on some of the areas of improvement they’re currently working on, including “getting physically stronger” and some “technical things.”
“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.
McIntosh also noted that she’s enrolled in an accounting class at Texas, beginning around the start of February.
“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,” she said. “It’s really important to get an education. You can’t swim forever.”
At the Austin Pro Swim the weekend before last, McIntosh won the women’s 200 IM (2:08.48) and 400 IM (4:28.13) while placing 2nd in the 100 fly (58.56) and 4th in the 100 free (54.91).
While praising the breaststroke leg of her 400 IM, Bowman said he did not like McIntosh’s backstroke leg, making it clear he isn’t afraid to challenge her in pursuit of excellence.
Read Heroux’s full story on CBC.ca here.
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