Maggie Mac Neil has started her bid to make history.
The 24-year-old from London, Ont., is looking to become the first-ever female swimmer to defend her Olympic title in the 100-metre butterfly, the race she won at the last Summer Games in Tokyo, though she didn’t know it initially since she wasn’t wearing her contact lenses. When the results did come into focus for Mac Neil, she dropped her jaw and said: “Oh my god.”
Her gold medal in Tokyo was the first for Canada at the last Games, and Mac Neil won one of every colour there, with a silver in the 4×100-m freestyle and bronze in the 4×100-m individual medley. In her second Olympics, which Mac Neil also says will be her last, she hit the pool in her marquee event Saturday for 100-m butterfly heats and semifinals, with the event’s final set for Sunday at 2:40 p.m. ET. Mac Neil, who tied for fourth in the semis, won silver in the event at the 2023 world championships.
Before she set off for Paris, Mac Neil sat down with Sportsnet to talk about what she’s most looking forward to about a “normal” Olympics,” to share a stat most people don’t know about her teammate Summer McIntosh, and to give her perspective on attempting to make history.
Sportsnet: What is it like going to the Olympics as the defending champion?
Mac Neil: Well, no one’s ever done it, won [the women’s 100-m butterfly] back-to-back, twice in a row. Or twice, ever. So obviously that’s something that’s on my mind and on my coach’s mind, and that’s something we’re working towards.
But as much as I have pressure on myself and want to do well, I need to know and remind myself that I don’t have to prove myself to anyone, including myself, because I have done things like that already. I’m just trying to remember that and keep that in perspective.
You’ve said this will be your last Olympics. For sure?
Four years is a long time to work. Four years is a long time to wait for another one. So yes, Paris is my last Olympics, but it’s not the last time you’re going to see me compete.
Do you have a plan for how many more years you’ll swim competitively? One year, two?
One, three, two, it’s all up in the air still. But 2028 in LA [the next Olympics]? No. I want to move on with my life, I think. I want to get into law school. I want to do sports law. That’s how I want to stay involved in the sport.
How do you think you’d be in a court room?
I’m good at arguing. I want to be kind of fierce.
Have you always had aspirations to be a lawyer?
It’s kind of always been in the background, I would say. But I definitely have found it a little bit more intriguing, I think, since I started my master’s [of science in sports management, at LSU; she graduated earlier this year].
Did you get recognized as the Olympic champion walking around on campus?
No. Occasionally I get recognized at home. In the U.S., never. Which is nice, I think.
You don’t like the spotlight?
No, I don’t mind it, but it’s just kind of awkward. I was raised to be very humble and kind of just brought up that way. If people are going to bring it up, it’s kind of awkward. The only reason I told my professors at school is because they need to know why I’m gone all the time. But that’s not something like, if I meet them for the first time in my life, I say, ‘Oh hey, by the way…’
Your teammate Finlay Knox was talking about how this Canadian swim team has been led by women, and he thinks it’s time for the men to step up and start winning a bunch, too.
It’s about time, honestly [laughs].
Can you see the impact you and your teammates have had on this Canadian swim team since you all started winning a lot?
One hundred per cent. And I mean, obviously I’m newer to the revolution — or renaissance. Yeah, probably renaissance is the right word. My first [national] senior team was 2019. Rio [the 2016 Olympics] was when we kind of broke out, the [swim] team got six medals. That’s when it all started. It was Penny [Oleksiak] and a bunch of people that retired … I never really knew many of them. But since I came along in 2019, they already got the ball rolling, so it’s kind of easy to keep it rolling, I guess.
How do you keep rolling when it comes to training, especially on days you find tough?
Some days are going to feel better than others and you can’t really control that. I mean, it’s not fun if I have a really bad practice or I’m feeling tired of my asthma’s kicking up. There’s some things that I’m just like, there’s nothing I can do about it, just suck it up. But at this point, I think I’ve learned that it’s what you do on the bad days that matters more than what you do on the good days. Keeping that in mind just helps me keep it all in perspective.
How do you make sure your asthma isn’t kicking up?
I’m always diligent with my medications and stuff, but being in the south [at LSU] with the humidity and the heat, it’s kind of hard. It’s challenging. I do the best I can.
I hear you have an amazing memory when it comes to stats and numbers. Any you want to share about these Games?
I do have a good memory with numbers. Like my friends, when I would swim in club, they’d be like, ‘What’s my best time?’ ‘What are our best times in practice?’ They’d always ask me and I would tell them. I mean, this is the first Olympics where they’ve had complete gender parity. That’s a big deal. It’s been 100 years since the last Olympics in Paris.
Do you have a favourite stat about your teammate, Summer McIntosh?
She ordered room service 18 times at [2022] worlds.
That’s an incredible stat.
Yeah, she eats so much, she’s always hungry so she’d always get more food. I always thought that was funny, I was like, ‘Somebody has to count,’ so I did. That summer it was the teriyaki salmon at the hotel, she was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love this.’ So she got it every day. And I mean, it works, so… [McIntosh won four medals at the 2022 world championships, including two gold].
Three years have passed since the Tokyo Games. Do you feel like a different swimmer now?
I feel like I’ve lived a whole life since then. It feels like yesterday, but also like years ago at the same time. So it’s kind of an odd paradox, I guess. I’ve matured a lot in and out of the pool, I think, and I’m at a different stage in my life. I’m older and I’ve just done a lot more.
What are you most looking forward to about your last Olympics?
I just hope it’s more normal [laughs].
What do you think that would that look like since you’ve never been at a “normal” one? [Tokyo 2020 was heavily restricted and delayed a year due to COVID].
Well, that’s the thing. In Tokyo everyone was like, ‘Oh, I wish you could do this. I wish we could do that.’ But it was normal for me because I’d never done another one. But I want to go see other events, like go to closing ceremony, things like that, that we didn’t get to do in Tokyo. And have family there. It’ll be nice to be able to share those moments with them and have them there, because obviously that was what we didn’t have last time.
Who will be there cheering you on?
My mom, my dad, my sister, my aunt, my uncle, my two cousins, their wives, and each of them have two kids.
Any plans after the Olympics?
I’m going to Portugal and Spain afterwards with my two friends from high school. And because I want to go to the closing ceremony, my family and I, we got a little house in southern France for the week. So it’ll be nice to just relax. After Pan Ams [in 2023], I did three days in Chile with my mom and we were so busy , like we did everything. It’s just really tiring. I mean, I swim a lot more in a shorter period of time at Pan Ams than I do at the Olympics, but it’ll be nice to just relax and wind down and then get ready and go on this big trip.
When you do decide to leave swimming behind, what do you hope people remember about you?
When I’m done down the line, I hope that I leave a legacy of not just who I was as a swimmer, but who I was a person. That I’m a good friend, and loyal and a good teammate.
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