Student Spotlight: Olympic Gold Medalist Summer McIntosh

(Photo Credit @summerrmcintosh)

At OVS, we pride ourselves on providing a flexible education for students around the world. By allowing students to schedule their education around their lives, they have more free time to pursue their dreams.

Summer McIntosh has been an OVS student since 2020. She has been steadily working through her high school courses while simultaneously dedicating her time and effort towards her training schedule.

At just 14 years old, Summer attended the 2020 Olympics as part of team Canada. While she might not have achieved a medal, she came close, placing 4th in the Women’s 400m Freestyle. For such a young athlete to not only qualify for the Olympics, but also show up as such a strong competitor, is no small achievement.

Between 2022 and 2023 Summer continued to rise through the ranks, impressing the world with her athletic prowess. In total, she earned 6 gold medals, 4 silver medals, and 4 Bronze medals at various competitions:

Which brings us into 2024 and this truly Golden Summer!

This summer, at the Paris Olympics, Summer Mcintosh made her mark on the athletic world. Canada earned a total of 9 gold medals at the Olympic, 3 of which were won by Summer.

Summer earned Canada’s first medal, getting Silver in the 400m Freestyle. Shortly afterwards she won her first Olympic Gold Medal in the Women’s 400m Freestyle Medley with a time of 4:27:71, which was 5.69 seconds ahead of Grims, who took the Silver.

Summer took Gold yet again in the 200m Butterfly. She is the first Canadian to win gold in this event and did so with a time of 2:03.03, setting an Olympic record.

Finally, Summer swam for Gold in the 200m Individual Medley, making Canadian history by being the first athlete to win three gold medals during one Olympic game.

(Photo Credit @summerrmcintosh)

As a young athlete it takes a lot of training, dedication, time, and talent to achieve Olympic success, and when you’re still a high school student it can make it all the more challenging. Summer has been able to use OVS’s self-paced learning platform to get a high-quality education while still being able to achieve her athletic goals.

Summer is doing incredibly well in her studies, with a high academic achievement. She is currently completing her Grade 12 year with us. All of us at OVS couldn’t be more excited to watch Summer at the Olympics. We’re cheering her on and are incredible proud to be a small part in helping her on her Olympic journey!