HOUSTON: Olympic swim stars Summer McIntosh and Leon Marchand closed out the US Open in Austin, Texas, with dominant victories in the 200m butterfly on Saturday.

Canada’s McIntosh, the reigning Olympic and world champion, clocked 2min 02.62sec to win the women’s 200m fly, posting the fourth-fastest time ever to beat American Regan Smith by 4.27sec.

France’s Marchand, who counted the 200m fly among his four gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, won the men’s 200m fly in 1:52.57 with Canadian Ilya Kharun — bronze medalist in Paris — second in 1:55.71 and Hungarian Hubert Kos third in 1:56.01.

Smith and Kos — who trains in Austin with McIntosh and Marchand under former Mich­ael Phelps coach Bob Bowman — both made their fly podiums after 200m backstroke victories.

Smith won the 200m back in 2:05.52, with Leah Shackley a distant second in 2:07.21.

Kos, the Olympic and world champion, won the men’s 200m back in 1:54.21 — four seconds in front of runner-up Blake Tierney.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2025