EXCLUSIVE Former Team Canada gymnast reveals brutal way she was humiliated in front of teammates week after week
Laura Mazzuca, 31, started doing gymnastics when she was only two years old. By the time she was six, she was already training 36 hours a week.
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
After facing lowly Rockies, Orioles draw Jays for four
July 28 - The Baltimore Orioles finally got things going in the right direction against the worst team in baseball. Now the challenge rises considerably when the Toronto Blue Jays visit for the opener of a four-game series on Monday. The Orioles have won two in a row after Sunday afternoon's 5-1 victory against the visiting Colorado Rockies. It's Baltimore's first winning streak since July 10-11. But now the Orioles go from facing the team with the worst record in the majors to facing the team with the best. What's more, despite the wins over the Rockies, the Orioles are 4-6 since the All-Star break and enter Monday trailing the Blue Jays by 15 1/2 games in the American League East. Toronto had a four-game winning streak snapped with Sunday's 10-4 loss at Detroit. The Blue Jays are 8-2 since the break. Despite their success, the Blue Jays need to improve away from home. They're 26-26 in road games. The series will be played over three days as a doubleheader is scheduled for Tuesday. The teams have split six meetings so far this season but have not played each other since April 13. Back then, the Orioles were considered one of the American League favorites and the Blue Jays weren't among the favorites entering the season. That has changed dramatically as Toronto has emerged as a front-runner. But the Blue Jays are not without their issues. Catcher Alejandro Kirk suffered a concussion Saturday when a foul ball struck his mask, so manager John Schneider said Tyler Heineman will handle a bulk of the catching in Kirk's absence. The team also called up Ali Sanchez from Triple-A Buffalo. "He'll stay with us and rest up," Schneider said of Kirk, who was placed on the seven-day injured list. "You never really know with a concussion, and we don't want to take any chances." Baltimore is expected to make some roster adjustments, as well, but that has more to do with Thursday's trade deadline. "There will be some adversity throughout the week, without a doubt," said interim manager Tony Mansolino. Yet catcher Adley Rutschman is expected back after an injury rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Norfolk. Orioles designated hitter Tyler O'Neill is on a tear with a home run in each of his past three games. He hadn't done that since 2021 with the St. Louis Cardinals. "We knew it was only a matter of time, just getting on the field and getting reps," infielder Gunnar Henderson said. "That was, I feel like, the biggest thing, was just getting out there." Right-hander Zach Eflin (6-5. 5.78 ERA) heads to the mound for the Orioles in the opener. He opened the season with a win over the host Blue Jays on March 27, giving up two runs on two hits over six innings in a 12-2 win. The Jays' runs came on a two-run homer from Andres Gimenez, who has been out with an injury since July 4. More recently, Eflin's only appearance this month came with Wednesday's 3-2 loss at Cleveland, where he gave up two runs on five hits over five innings. Eflin is 4-3 with a 5.40 ERA in 10 career games -- nine starts -- vs. the Blue Jays. Toronto's starter will be right-hander Chris Bassitt (11-4, 3.88), who is 4-0 across four starts this month. Along with an inning of relief pitched the day before the All-Star break, Bassitt has a 2.39 ERA in July. Bassitt picked up a March 30 victory at home against Baltimore by logging six innings and holding the Orioles to one run on eight hits with seven strikeouts. Bassitt has made nine career starts against Baltimore, notching a 5-3 record and 4.61 ERA in those games. --Field Level Media
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
'It destroyed my life': The drug addiction leaving users in chronic pain
Nicole will always remember the first time she took ketamine. It was the start of a night out and she didn't want to drink. So instead, she picked up the bag of white powder she found in her friend's car. It was a decision that had life-altering consequences. "I tried it and remember having it and just thinking, this is it," she recalls. "This is my saviour. This is my drug." Instead of rescuing her from her mental health struggles like she hoped it would, ketamine sent her into a spiral. Less than four years on, the 31-year-old mother of one from Southport is now living in a detox centre, separated from her son and living in chronic pain. 9:33 Nicole's journey from recreational use to a deep addiction that caused her severe bladder and kidney problems may be just one extreme case, but ketamine use is now at record levels. Experts believe this could cause a tidal wave of issues the country is not prepared for, placing severe pressure on the NHS, as well as addiction and mental health services. Currently a Class B drug, ketamine is used in clinical settings as an anaesthetic for people and animals. It is usually taken recreationally as a crushed powder, but also sometimes injected or swallowed - making people feel detached and dreamlike. Referred to as "ket" and "special k", it's easily available and costs around £30 a gram. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of children and young people who reported having a problem with the drug surpassed cocaine for the first time. The number of ketamine deaths in England and Wales also increased from seven in 2015 to 53 in 2023. 'I don't remember the last three years' I met Nicole at Birchwood, a residential drug and alcohol detox facility on the Wirral. In the week before I arrived, 14 out of 25 beds were taken by ketamine users. As we walk through the corridors, Birchwood manager Jo Moore tells me that in more than two decades of working in healthcare, she's never dealt with a challenge as big as the wave of people she's seeing addicted to ketamine, arriving with extreme and complex health issues. "They're all presenting with urinary incontinence, some can't even walk, they've lost their muscle tone, some are in wheelchairs, and the crippling pain they're going through is significant," she says. As well as running Birchwood, Jo speaks about the drug at conferences and holds a weekly video call, offering support for a growing group of parents whose children are addicted. I also met Callum, who describes himself simply as "just a lad from Cheshire ways". While speaking, he often pauses for thought, struck by how quickly his life has taken a turn since his addiction began three years ago. When his dad died following a struggle with alcoholism, Callum, who had been his carer, turned to ketamine. Until then, the 24-year-old had only taken the drug at festivals, but it quickly took over his life. "I was so out of it constantly," he says. "I don't remember the last three years properly because of just, you know, you've taken it the whole time." Daily use nearly cost Callum his life. He had multiple organ issues and weighed just six stone by the time Jo, who knew his family, told his mother that he needed to come to rehab. Callum's experience is a reminder of how hard it can be to break a dependency on ketamine. As an anaesthetic, it creates a vicious cycle. Users need it to help ease the pain it causes them. "It's only once you get off the ketamine you realise the pain that you've got and the problems that you've got," Callum tells me. "When you're on it, you know you've sort of got pains, but you don't think they're that bad. "People I know drank for 30, 40 years and my liver is worse than theirs, just from ketamine alone." 'Ketamine destroyed my life' Nicole also turned to ketamine because it felt like a way out. She'd had a difficult childhood, been in an abusive relationship as an adult and struggled with mental health issues her whole life. In a moment of blunt honesty, she tells me she does not regret taking ketamine. "If I didn't take ketamine in that period of time, I wouldn't be here," she says. "It was a coping mechanism for a while, before it destroyed my life." As her bladder and kidneys deteriorated, Nicole was taken to hospital several times, often treated by medics who could not understand the problems caused by heavy ketamine use. On one occasion, she was sent home with chlamydia tablets. On another, she had an invasive kidney procedure with no anaesthetic, because doctors were concerned about giving her pain relief due to her ketamine use. Becoming more animated, Nicole tells me: "To be in that situation where you need help, you don't know what's going on yourself, the only place you can go to is the hospital and not even they know what is going on with you. That is like a complete state of isolation, loneliness." Nicole now starts her days in severe agony. She says the chronic pain will last the rest of her life, and pauses at one point in conversation to tell me her bladder is spasming as we speak. Despite how difficult the last few years have been for them, Nicole and Callum both have hopes for their lives beyond Birchwood. In the months after I met him, Callum successfully completed his detox and rehab. He has also made good on a promise to "get his life back on track" by finding a full-time job. Things have been more difficult for Nicole, who is still in Birchwood and has been in and out of hospital for a range of bladder and kidney complications. She is still waiting to find out whether her bladder will be removed. Nicole has made it her mission to raise awareness, posting regularly on TikTok about her appointments and her day-to-day life. Her ultimate hope is to one day join Jo in delivering talks across the country about the drug and its dangers. Life-changing injuries within a year Away from Birchwood, the struggles of people like Callum and Nicole are also being felt in the NHS. Alison Downey is a consultant urologist at Pinderfields Hospital in West Yorkshire, where "ketamine bladder" has become an increasingly common phrase to describe the severe damage the drug can do. "We've seen an explosion in numbers over the past, particularly two to three years," she says. "Maybe about four or five years ago we would have one or two cases a month, we're now seeing eight or nine a month." Ms Downey says while urologists are continuing to learn about the drug's impact, there is one certainty: ketamine causes complex challenges for medics. "There's no other drug that does this amount of damage this quickly to your kidneys and your bladder," she says. "We obviously see patients who have drug addiction problems from heroin and cocaine in A&E or on the wards, but ketamine has this very specific, quick damage to the kidneys and bladder specifically that we just don't see in any other drug use." With balloons and a jug, Miss Downey explains the impact the drug can have on someone's bladder, reducing its capacity. "We know that the average (bladder) capacity of a person that's been using ketamine for a long amount of time is about 100ml, which is about the size of this balloon," she says. "If you compare that to a normal adult bladder, which holds about 500ml, so five of these balloons, you can see that the capacity is severely reduced. That can result in needing to go to the toilet every 15 to 20 minutes throughout the day or night." Framing the issues being seen on the frontline are the ongoing discussions around reclassification. Earlier this year, the government announced it would look into the possibility of making ketamine a Class A drug, which would carry greater penalties for making and selling it. Dr Caroline Copeland is a senior lecturer in pharmacology and toxicology at King's College London and also the director of the National Programme on Substance Use Mortality. For her, this debate is nuanced and needs to go beyond criminalisation. "I think that instead of necessarily focusing on the punitive measures, which is what comes with the reclassification, we need to be thinking more about how we can actually spend that time and money towards helping the people who are using ketamine and education programmes to stop people starting to use ketamine in the first place," she said. Dr Copeland also thinks reclassification needs to be a process that takes into account the wider context, because this is a drug that is commonplace and being used casually by many, without significant health consequences. She added: "Since ketamine was last reclassified from C to B, the landscape of its use has changed somewhat. "There's much more recreational use in a younger demographic. So we need to do a comprehensive assessment of its harms to determine whether it warrants escalating to being a Class A substance." However, for those whose lives have been changed by casual use spiralling into addiction, solutions are needed urgently. I can still remember Jo Moore's words as she walked me out of Birchwood on my first day of filming this story. She sees this as an issue that needs tackling, with a national framework to bring systems together. "We're really trying to fight, because we see the damage," she says. "I've looked after heroin addicts and after 20 years of them using heroin, they don't have anything related to the harm that we've got now for the ketamine users, only after a very short time. "And I think that's what's been so shocking about seeing these ketamine users come through. They can use ketamine for 10 months, two years, and have life-changing injuries. "That's why we're fighting for this. I think that we have all been very slow to react as a nation to these health concerns." Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@ in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
'Lucky' De Minaur saves three match points to lift Washington Open title
July 27 (Reuters) - Alex De Minaur rallied from a set down and saved three match points to claim the Washington Open title with a 5-7 6-1 7-6(3) win over Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the final of the ATP 500 event on Sunday. The Australian number one, who lost the 2018 final to Alexander Zverev, felt he rode his luck to secure his 10th career title and ensure he will enter the top 10 in the world rankings ahead of next month's U.S. Open. The two 26-year-olds exchanged breaks early in the opening set before Spain's Davidovich Fokina seized control by breaking again and closed out the set with the help of some crisp forehand winners. De Minaur responded emphatically in the second set, converting two of four break-point opportunities while holding serve throughout, wrapping up the set in just over 30 minutes with an ace to level the contest. The Spaniard looked on course for his first career title when he broke to grab the lead in the decider but he failed to serve out the match at 5-3, sending a forehand long to hand the break back to seventh seed De Minaur. Davidovich Fokina's frustration mounted as the 12th seed squandered three match points on De Minaur's serve, and the Australian then capitalised on a series of unforced errors in the tiebreak to edge the contest. "I came here in 2018 and it gave me so much confidence, so I'm so happy that I was able to come back and end up winning the title," De Minaur said at the trophy presentation. "Alejandro, you're way too good not to have one of these, it's coming for sure," he added, gesturing to the trophy. "You deserved it today, I just got lucky. You are a hell of a competitor, hell of a player. No one on the tour wants to play you. And this is not the end, this is only going on for you." Davidovich Fokina recalled that he had required a wild card to play in the U.S. capital last year and was pleased to have at least guaranteed a rise to a career high world number 19 when the rankings are updated on Monday. "He deserved the win, he was fighting every ... ball, he was always pushing through my limits," Davidovich Fokina said. "We had a job to do before we started the year, to be at the middle of the year in the top 20. This week we did it, just not with the trophy. But for sure, we will keep going, pushing our limits, pushing harder."
