NANTERRE, France — Summer McIntosh of Canada stamped herself as one of the swimming stars of the Paris Olympics with her third individual gold medal Saturday night.
The 17-year-old chased down American Alex Walsh and held off another U.S. swimmer, Kate Douglass, to finish in an Olympic record of 2 minutes, 6.56 seconds.
Douglass grabbed the silver in the star-studded final at 2:06.92, but the Americans lost the bronze when Walsh, the silver medalist in this event at Tokyo who recorded a time of 2:07.06, was disqualified because she did not finish the backstroke segment on her back.
Australia's Kaylee McKeown, who touched fourth, was bumped up to the bronze at 2:08.08.
It was a bitter blow for Walsh, whose younger sister, Gretchen, has won two silver medals in Paris.
McIntosh set several world records ahead of the Paris Olympics, and she backed up the enormous expectations by claiming a starring role at La Defense Arena along with Léon Marchand and Katie Ledecky.
McIntosh also won gold medals in the 200 butterfly and 400 IM, plus a silver in the 400 freestyle. She fell just 0.88 seconds — the margin of her loss to Ariarne Titmus — shy of matching Marchand's four individual golds.
