Summer McIntosh to swim for 1st Olympic medal in women's 400m freestyle

Summer McIntosh will have another chance to earn her first Olympic swimming medal on Saturday afternoon.

The Canadian teen sensation qualified fourth for the women's 400-metre freestyle final at 2:52 p.m. ET, posting a time of four minutes 2.65 seconds in her heat at La Defense Arena in Paris.

McIntosh, 17, was fourth (4:02.42) in the race in her 2021 Olympic debut in Tokyo.

The Toronto athlete captured silver medals in the 400 free at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and 2023 world championships.

McIntosh will also compete in the 200 free, 400 individual medley — in which she holds the world record — 200 butterfly and 200 medley in Paris, and could be part of as many as four relay events.

And there is an opportunity for her to surpass Penny Oleksiak's four-medal haul from 2016 in Rio, the Canadian record for a single Summer Games.

WATCH | McIntosh speaks with CBC Sports' Devin Heroux before Paris Olympics:

In Saturday's heat, McIntosh finished 1-10th of a second behind winner Erika Fairweather of New Zealand.

American Katie Ledecky (4:02.19) took the third and final heat over Australian rival and world record holder Ariarne Titmus (4:02.46).

Titmus, known as "The Terminator," got off to a fast start but couldn't hold off the hard-charging Ledecky on the final lap. Titmus posted the second-fastest timein the preliminaries, setting up a side-by-side showdown with Ledecky in the final.

Ledecky captured 2016 Olympic gold, followed by Titmus five years later.

Ledecky is looking to add to her haul of six individual gold medals, already the most by any female swimmer in Olympic history. She's a heavy favourite in both the 800 and 1,500 freestyle.

Tokyo bronze medallist Li Bingjie and Chinese teammate Liu Yaxin finished ninth