Not so long ago at her Ontario elementary school, Summer McIntosh and her peers would practice singing the Canadian national anthem in both English and French.
They would break it down into thirds.
So when she stepped onto the medal stand at the Paris Olympics on Monday night after winning the 400-meter individual medley and "Oh Canada" began to play, that is exactly how the smiling teen sang — a portion in English, followed by a stretch in French and then English again.