Summer McIntosh - A Real Woman - Hands Katie Ledecky Her First 800m Freestyle Loss In 10+ Years

All too often, we hear of women’s sports records getting broken by transgender women, who are really just biological males.

Whether it’s Lia Thomas, the Connecticut high school track athletes in 2018, or a host of other frustrating instances, men will step right into women’s sports and - unsurprisingly - frequently surpass records and standards of excellence set by biological women in their sports.

So when someone beat Katie Ledecky's time in the 800m freestyle event by six seconds, you’d think transgenders once again left their mark on women’s sports.

Thankfully, that’s not the case. A real woman beat another real woman, straight up, fair and square.

17-year-old Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh defeated Ledecky in the 800m freestyle final of the Southern Zone South Sectional Championships. The last time Ledecky lost the final of this event was in 2010, when McIntosh was seven years old.

McIntosh is a certified beast. In fact, her time of 8 minutes and 11.39 seconds not only beat Ledecky by six seconds, it would have been good enough to earn her a gold medal in the event in the 2020 Summer Olympics.  

Finally, we have an untainted moment of women’s greatness we can celebrate. Men without male parts didn’t set an illegitimate record that most women wouldn’t be physically capable of beating. Instead, we are witnessing perhaps the next great female swimmer make her mark in the sport.

If only all memorable moments in women’s sports could work like this. What an enjoyable world that would be.