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
Canada's Summer Mcintosh celebrates winning the gold medal in the women's 200-meter individual medley at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
A teammate comforts Canada's Summer McIntosh at the end of the women's 4x100-meter medley relay final at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
United States' Kate Douglass, Canada's Summer Mcintosh and Australia's Kaylee Mckeown pose with their medals during the awards ceremony for the women's 200-meter individual medley at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Canada's Summer Mcintosh celebrates winning the gold medal in the women's 200-meter individual medley at the Summer Olympics in Nanterre, France, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Tyre Nichols screamed for his mother while Memphis police beat him after a traffic stop on Jan. 7, 2023, about a block from where he lived with his parents. The 29-year-old died in a hospital three days later.
In an analysis of what the officers claimed happened on that night, The Associated Press sifted through hundreds of pages of evidence and hours of video from the scene, including officer body cameras. The cameras showed a starkly different scene to that described by the officers.
More than a year and a half after Nichols' death, three former officers are facing a federal criminal trial over the deadly pummeling. That’s in addition to allegations that they offered essentially no help as he slumped on a patrol car and onto the pavement, and claims that they lied or left out critical information to protect themselves from repercussions.
Two other former officers have pleaded guilty and could testify against the remaining three.
The trial will heighten attention on a case that sparked outrage around the world and intensified calls for police reform in the city and the U.S. as a whole.
The three officers have also been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where the other two former officers, Desmond Mills and Emmitt Martin, plan to plead guilty, like they have in federal court. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the Memphis Police Department and Nichols' family has sued the city over his death.
Here is an analysis of how the officers' claims in reports at the time stack up with what video footage shows during four key moments.
Memphis police officers Demetrius Haley, Preston Hemphill and Martin were the first three to encounter Nichols after pulling him over for what they said was reckless driving.
Haley wrote in his response to resistance form that Nichols “ignored all directives” to get out of the car. He wrote Nichols was “swinging his arms” and cursing at the officers. Martin's report claimed Nichols was reaching for one of the officers’ guns.
Footage from police body-worn camera shows the officers immediately yanked Nichols from the vehicle. The officers are swearing, shouting and threatening to shock Nichols with a Taser.
The video shows Nichols being forced onto his knees, while he tries to calmly tell the officers, “I am on the ground.” Nichols is then physically overpowered by the three officers who are using a Taser and pepper spray on him.
Additional Memphis officers Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith joined the fray after Nichols fled and was caught just blocks from his parents’ home.
Haley, Bean and Smith all described in their response to resistance forms that the officers used “soft hands” techniques to subdue Nichols — Haley during the traffic stop, and Bean and Smith at the scene of the beating.
“Soft hands” is a technique described in Memphis police guidelines as “escort controls, touch pressure points, wrist or arm locks and take down techniques that have a minimum chance of injury.”
The incident report only mentions that officers used chemical agents and a baton against Nichols, omitting the kicks, punches and slaps while his arms were held or restrained.
Multiple videos show an almost three-minute barrage of fists, feet and baton strikes to Nichols’ face, head, front and back as officers restrain him.
Bean, Haley and Smith are charged with acting with “deliberate indifference” while Nichols was on the ground, struggling with his injuries. The indictment, which lodges a number of charges, says the officers “willfully” disregarded Nichols’ medical needs by failing to give him medical care and not telling a police dispatcher and emergency medical personnel that Nichols had been hit repeatedly.
Bean, Haley and Smith have pleaded not guilty.
Smith’s body-worn camera captured him and another officer exchanging a high five steps away from Nichols. On the aerial video, two officers are seen fist-bumping each other.
Meanwhile, Nichols appears to be falling out of consciousness, slumping over and not responding when officers try to pull him upright again.
On body-worn camera from Bean, the officers brag about the assault and laugh, and they speculate that Nichols is high. Nichols’ autopsy later detected only low levels of alcohol and THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his system.
On Mills’ body camera, Lt. Dewayne Smith and Mills go to Nichols’ home where he lives with his parents, just blocks from where he is laying bleeding. His parents ask what Nichols is in custody for.
Lt. Smith tells them he was arrested for a DUI and that Nichols was “intoxicated.”
In another interaction, Hemphill tells Nichols’ mother that he fought with officers and another officer tells her that he had “unbelievable strength.” Smith, the former lieutenant, resigned in lieu of being fired, and Hemphill was fired. Neither face criminal charges.
Hemphill later talks to Nichols’ parents at the scene of the initial traffic stop, where his mother, RowVaughn Wells, shares comments of disbelief.
"My son? My son? Not Tyre," Wells said.
Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee.
FILE - The image from video released on Jan. 27, 2023, by the City of Memphis, shows Tyre Nichols during a brutal attack by five Memphis police officers on Jan. 7, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn. (City of Memphis via AP, File)
FILE - RowVaughn Wells rests on her husband's shoulder Rodney Wells, the parents of Tyre Nichols, during a news conference after a former Memphis Police Department officer pleaded guilty to civil rights violations in the 2023 fatal beating of their son, Aug. 23, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
FILE - This combo of images provided by the Memphis, Tenn., Police Department shows, top row from left, officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, and bottom row from left, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith. (Memphis Police Department via AP, File)
FILE - The screen at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans honors Tyre Nichols before an NBA basketball game between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Washington Wizards, Jan. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton, File)
