McIntosh, relay teams advance to swimming finals

PARIS — Summer McIntosh and Canada's 4x100 relay teams advanced to their finals as the swimming competition kicked off Saturday at the Paris Olympics.

The 17-year-old McIntosh from Toronto qualified for the final of the women's 400-metre freestyle by finishing second in her heat and fourth overall.

The former world record holder in the event will look to improve on her fourth-place finish at the Tokyo Games when she swims in the final later Saturday at Paris La Defense Arena.

Toronto's Penny Oleksiak, Mary-Sophie Harvey of Trois-Rivières, Que., Brooklyn Douthwright of Riverview, N.B., and Taylor Ruck of Kelowna, B.C., qualified sixth in the women's 4x100-metre freestyle relay, while Finlay Knox of Okotoks, Alta., Yuri Kisil of Calgary, and Javier Acevedo and Josh Liendo, both form Toronto, qualified fifth for the men's final.

Both freestyle relay finals are scheduled for later Saturday.

Also Saturday, Maggie Mac Neil of London, Ont., took second place in her heat and qualified seventh overall for the women’s 100-metre butterfly semifinals, which are set to be held later in the day.

The 24-year-old, who is the defending champion in the event, will look to move on to Sunday's final.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2024.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said Mac Neil advanced to the 100 butterfly final. In fact, she advanced to the semifinals.