What did Summer McIntosh do over school vacation? The Canadian teen won 3 golds and a silver

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What did Summer McIntosh do over school vacation? The Canadian teen won 3 golds and a silver

2024-08-05 18:08 Last Updated At：18:10

NANTERRE, France (AP) — After winning three gold medals and a silver swimming at the Paris Games, it's back to high school for Canadian teen sensation Summer McIntosh.

She will take some time to catch her breath and decompress back home in Ontario during a short break from the pool — and then she has a couple of courses left to complete her high school requirements this fall.

After earning her diploma, McIntosh will begin thinking about what's next, including where she will attend college.

One thing is already decided: It won't be for an NCAA program in the United States. McIntosh's mother, 1984 swimming Olympian Jill Horstead, said her daughter wants more flexibility in her training and meet schedule than American colleges provide.

Yet none of these big decisions are the first thing on the teenager's agenda. For months, McIntosh has been planning her 18th birthday party at the family cottage by a lake - her happy place.

Friends from home will be attending, along with some from Florida where she now trains. It's her golden birthday — she turns 18 on Aug. 18.

“It's going to be fun just to have some time off swimming and kind of take my mind off things,” she said. “Just kind of soak up all of what I've done here.”

Horstead says she is unlikely to relax and rest until after those festivities are over.

Her mom is proud of how McIntosh stays so balanced, making sure her social life remains a key part of her routine right along with swimming and school. It's different than how Horstead operated in her day.

“She's a very social teenager, she demands a fun side. I admire that in her,” the mother said. “She’s a teenage girl with a lot going on who can still have a lot of fun.”

They are all overjoyed with how a near-perfect week in Paris turned out. Horstead's sister, Kelly Draper, came along while her husband and two sons stayed home to decorate the house and host watch parties to cheer on McIntosh with more than 20 people.

Draper's experience in Paris instantly brought her back to the 1984 Games.

“Over the last four years, we've been waiting for this moment to come,” Draper said. “I remember 1984 like it was yesterday and just being there to cheer on my sister was one of the most special moments of my life. ... And now 40 years later, to be here with my sister cheering on her daughter, my niece, has been the most incredible experience of my life.”

McIntosh's only misses in France came in a trio of relays with the Canadians finishing fourth in each of the 4x100-meter medley, the 4x100 and 4x200.

She leaves with golds in her three individual events of the 400 and 200 individual medleys and the 200 butterfly — one that's a little more meaningful considering it was her mother's event. McIntosh earned silver in the 400 free.

“It's been some of the craziest days of my life,” McIntosh said, acknowledging that she is physically and emotionally spent. “Of course you're going to get tired, nine days of Olympic racing, but at the same time I've trained years, so I'm familiar with this kind of pain and exhaustion."

And she has her eyes on 2028.

“I'm already thinking about LA to be honest, I'm really excited."

Her father, Greg, knows it will take time for everything from France to sink in for the family.

“Still digesting all of it for sure. It’s been the focus for our family for the last three years since Tokyo. It’ll take a bit of time for it to come into focus and perspective, this year and the impact of what Summer has been able to do here," he said. “You’re bursting with pride and you’re thankful for all the support that she’s had. There’s a huge team behind Summer.”

An entire country as well.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Swollen rivers flood towns in US South after dayslong deluge of rain

2025-04-07 13:40 Last Updated At：13:51

FRANKFORT, Kentucky (AP) — Days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms that killed at least 18 people worsened flooding as some rivers rose to near-record levels and inundated towns across an already saturated U.S. South and parts of the Midwest.

Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio.

“As long as I’ve been alive — and I’m 52 — this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Wendy Quire, the general manager at the Brown Barrel restaurant in downtown Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital built around the swollen Kentucky River.

“The rain just won’t stop,” Quire said Sunday. “It’s been nonstop for days and days.”

Officials diverted traffic and turned off utilities to businesses in the city as the river was expected to crest above 49 feet Monday to a record-setting level, said Frankfort Mayor Layne Wilkerson. The city's flood wall system is designed to withstand 51 feet of water.

For many, there was a sense of dread that the worst was still to come.

“This flooding is an act of God,” said Kevin Gordon, a front desk clerk at the Ashbrook Hotel in downtown Frankfort. The hotel was offering discounted stays to affected locals.

The 18 reported deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee. A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was caught up in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter died in a crash while seeking to rescue people caught in the storm.

The National Weather Service warned Sunday that dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach a “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.

In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth and Butler, towns near the bend of the rising Licking River. Thirty years ago, the river reached a record 50 feet (15 meters), resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.

The storms come after the Trump administration cut jobs at NWS forecast offices, leaving half of them with vacancy rates of about 20%, or double the level of a decade ago.

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong winds and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.

The NWS said 5.06 inches (nearly 13 centimeters) of rain fell Saturday in Jonesboro, Arkansas — making it the wettest day ever recorded in April in the city. Memphis, Tennessee, received 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Wednesday to Sunday, the NWS said.

Rives, a northwestern Tennessee town of about 200 people, was almost entirely underwater after the Obion River overflowed.

Domanic Scott went to check on his father in Rives after not hearing from him in a house where water reached the doorstep.

“It’s the first house we’ve ever paid off. The insurance companies around here won’t give flood insurance to anyone who lives in Rives because we’re too close to the river and the levees. So if we lose it, we’re kind of screwed without a house,” Scott said.

In Dyersburg, Tennessee, dozens of people arrived over the weekend at a storm shelter near a public school clutching blankets, pillows and other necessities. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.

Among them was George Manns, 77, who said he was in his apartment when he heard a tornado warning and decided to head to the shelter. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.

“I grabbed all my stuff and came here,” said Mann, who brought a folding chair, two bags of toiletries, laptops, iPads and medications: “I don’t leave them in my apartment in case my apartment is destroyed."

For others, grabbing the essentials also meant taking a closer look at the liquor cabinet.

In Frankfort, with water rising up to his window sills, resident Bill Jones fled his home in a boat, which he loaded with several boxes of bottles of bourbon.

Izaguirre reported from New York. Kruesi reported from Nashville. Associated Press writers Bruce Schreiner in Shelbyville, Kentucky; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; Tennessee; Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Obed Lamy in Rives, Tennessee; and Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.