SIMMONS: Summer McIntosh isn’t just a Canadian legend, she’s now an all-time Olympic great

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PARIS — The names are both breathtaking and historical, the list of athletes who have won three gold medals at a single Olympic Games.

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Usain Bolt did it three times. Nadia Comaneci and Olga Korbut did it once apiece. Among those with a trio of gold from one Games: Jean-Claude Killy, Johan Olav Koss, Wilma Rudolph.

These are names for the ages. Names to make movies and documentaries about. Names never to be forgotten.

And now, Summer McIntosh, the soon-to-be 18-year-old from Toronto, finds herself in a sacred place among the greatest athletes Olympic sport has ever known.

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This isn’t just Canadian sport we’re talking about here. This is world sport. This is all-time great sport.

And this is difficult to grasp and comprehend in the big picture. You almost have a take breath, step back, get some perspective to include her name with many of those who have made the Olympics the indestructible sporting force it has become.

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And really, this could be just the beginning for McIntosh, on a stage of her own. She won four swim medals here, three of them gold, one silver and came close to two others in relay races with fourth-places finishes.

She had a better meet here than legendary American Katie Ledecky had in either Tokyo or Brazil. The four medals from four individual events place her in a rare position in both swimming history and certainly in Canadian Olympic history.

Swimmer Penny Oleksiak came home a hero from Brazil after winning four medals in swimming — but just one of those was gold. Speed skater Cindy Klassen won five medals in Turin, just one of hers was gold. Short-track speed skater Marc Gagnon won five Olympic medals in three different Games, two of them gold.

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McIntosh’s three gold medals and one silver here, all individually, put her in a place of her own in Canadian history.

But when it comes to emotion and excitement — what Canadians will remember most — maybe nothing will ever touch the Donovan Bailey win in the 100-metre race in Atlanta, followed seven days later with a romping in the 4X100 relay.

It was gold medal, world record, gold medal, kicking American butt all in an event they never lose at. There was value in all of that as a national ‘where were you’ moment to cherish.

And that came after the joy and disgrace of the Ben Johnson tragedy of 1988. Never has a country been so engaged and so enraged within a matter of days. That took time to recover from.

Bailey made the recovery easier by his victories in Atlanta. With two wins, he put the ugly past behind all of us and allowed a country to breath rather freely at Olympic time.

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Bailey may not be the most accomplished Canadian and now he is in a race with McIntosh — but he will remain the most historical for all his victories accomplished.

There have not been many other Canadians to win three gold medals in the Olympics. Marnie McBean and her late partner, Kathleen Heddle, won gold in consecutive Olympics in 1992 and 1996 in doubles rowing and also were part of a women’s eight rowing crew that won gold as well.

That gave them three gold medals apiece over two Games. At a time, they were the clubhouse leaders.

Alex Baumann won two swimming gold medals in the boycotted Los Angeles Olympics of 1984 and the sprinter, Andre De Grasse, won six medals in his first two Olympics in his first six events — that may never be equalled in track and field.

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But he only won one gold. The 200-metre race in Tokyo. The rest were bronze and silver.

And if you want to go back almost 100 years, Percy Williams did something no Canadian has ever done: He won both the 100- and 200-metre races in the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. It would be 68 years before another Canadian would win the 100, 93 years before a second Canadian would win the 200.

Ledecky had five medals in Rio in 2016, four of them gold, three of them individual gold. The other two were relays. McIntosh has three golds and a silver in her individual events. In one of her races, she was almost Bolt-like in leaving the field behind her.

She was alone in the 400 individual medley, the way Bolt was alone in the first Olympic 100 final he ran, having the time to turn around, peruse the field and still wind up with a world record.

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Leon Marchand had a brilliant Games for France, winning four individual gold medals in four Olympic-record times in swimming. That was the national story here in France, but it’s still a long way behind the pursuits of Michael Phelps and Mark Spitz, the Americans who won eight and seven medals, respectively, at their highlight-reel best.

But the three gold, one silver, by McIntosh didn’t just make her the individual story of these Olympics for Canada, but it put her in a place where no Canadian ever has truly been before.

Comaneci became famous at the Montreal Olympics. Korbut became famous just after that. And, in between, there was Killy, the skier, at home in France; there was Wilma Rudolph, who won the 100, the 200 and the 4X100 in Rome in 1960. The winners of three gold medals.

And here is Summer McIntosh with them, our own Summer McIntosh, among the legends of Olympic history, now and forever.

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