Summer McIntosh leads Canadian swim team eager to build on Paris success at world short course championships

Summer McIntosh is feeling right at home in the familiar confines of Duna Arena.

It was here in Budapest two years ago at the long course world championships the Canadian swimming sensation rocketed into a completely different stratosphere.

The Toronto teen, who was just 15 years old at the time, captured her first two individual world championship titles, swimming to gold in both the 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley in world junior record times. She became the youngest Canadian ever to win a world title. 

Two years later, McIntosh and the Canadians are back at Duna Arena getting ready for the short course world championships, set to begin Tuesday in the Hungarian capital. CBC Sports and CBC Gem will stream every race live with heats starting at 3 a.m. ET and finals at 11:30 a.m. ET. each day.

"This is definitely one of my favourite, if not my favourite, pool in the world because it holds so many memories and it's a really fast pool," McIntosh told CBC Sports at a training session ahead of the event. "To be back here two years later after one of the most important meets in my swimming career, it feels so long ago and seeing how far I've come since then is really cool."

McIntosh is coming off an electrifying Summer Games where she became the first Canadian ever to win three gold medals at a single Olympics. She'll be competing in four individual events in Budapest starting with the 400m freestyle on Tuesday's opening night. 

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"My goal is to win every event I enter. I have a bit of extra oomph for the 400m freestyle," McIntosh said. "I'm super excited to be here.