(NEW YORK) — Here’s the scores from Thursday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
LA Lakers 100, Phoenix 95
Milwaukee 118, Philadelphia 117
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Tampa Bay 6, San Jose 0
Winnipeg 4, Detroit 1
Pittsburgh 4, Colorado 0
Montreal 4, Columbus 3 (OT)
Carolina 3, Seattle 2 (OT)
Anaheim 4, Boston 3 (OT)
Philadelphia 6, Minnesota 2
NY Islanders 3, Ottawa 2
Toronto 4, Dallas 1
St. Louis 3, Calgary 0
NY Rangers 3, Edmonton 0
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
LA Clippers 123, Portland 111
Indiana 143, Washington 120
Orlando 116, Houston 86
Charlotte 116, Atlanta 110
Boston 108, New York 104
Toronto 97, Minnesota 94
Miami 103, Detroit 102
Cleveland 114, Brooklyn 113
Oklahoma City 124, Chicago 104
New Orleans 111, Memphis 104
Sacramento 130, Utah 114
Dallas 126, San Antonio 119
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Washington 6, New Jersey 4
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
New York 5, Charlotte FC 2
Sporting Kansas City 0, San Jose 0 (Sporting Kansas City advances 4-2 on penalty kicks)
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Arizona 4, Philadelphia 2 (Arizona wins series 4-3)
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Denver 119, LA Lakers 107
Phoenix 108, Golden State 104
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Los Angeles 6 Arizona 3
Vegas 3, Philadelphia 2
Toronto 4, Washington 1
Buffalo 6, Ottawa 4
Tampa Bay 3, Carolina 0
New Jersey 5, Montreal 2
Dallas 4, Pittsburgh 1
Final Florida 3 San Jose 1
Colorado 7, NY Islanders 4
Seattle 5 Detroit 4 (OT)
Anaheim 3, Columbus 2 (OT)
Winnipeg 4, St. Louis 2
Boston 3, Chicago 0
Minnesota 7, Edmonton 4
Vancouver 3, Nashville 2
NY Rangers 3, Calgary 1
(NEW YORK) — Mary Lou Retton is back home after a health scare that required a nearly two-week stay in the intensive care unit.
McKenna Lane Kelley, one of Retton’s four daughters, shared on Instagram Monday that her mom is home and “in recovery mode.”
“We still have a long road of recovery ahead of us, but baby steps,” Kelley wrote. “We are overwhelmed with the love and support from everyone. Grateful doesn’t scrape the surface of the posture of our hearts.”
Retton, 55, had been hospitalized in the ICU for nearly two weeks and was initially not able to breathe on her own, according to a fundraising page created for Retton, who is not insured, according to her family.
As recently as last week, another of Retton’s daughters, Shayla Kelley Schrepfer, shared on Instagram that her mom had suffered a “scary setback” after making steady progress earlier in the week.
Retton’s daughters have not shared exact details of their mom’s diagnosis beyond saying previously that she was battling a “very rare” form of pneumonia.
Pneumonia is an infection that causes the air sacs of the lungs to fill with fluid, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Retton became a sports icon when she won Olympic individual all-around gold at the 1984 Games. She also earned silver as a member of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team in the all-around and as an individual on vault. She earned bronze medals in the uneven bars and floor exercise to claim five medals total in Los Angeles.
She has remained an iconic American sports hero in the decades since and was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997.
In 2018, Retton competed on season 27 of ABC’s dancing competition show Dancing with the Stars.
(NEW YORK) — A collegiate gymnast has announced her retirement from the sport, alleging she was a victim of “verbal and emotional abuse.”
Kara Eaker, a junior at the University of Utah, shared on Instagram that she is withdrawing from the school, as well as retiring from the team and gymnastics overall.
“For two years, while training with the Utah Gymnastics team, I was a victim of verbal and emotional abuse,” Eaker wrote in her lengthy Instagram post. “As a result, my physical, mental and emotional health has rapidly declined. I had been seeing a university athletics psychologist for a year and a half and I’m now seeing a new provider twice a week because of suicidal and self-harm ideation and being unable to care for myself properly. I have recently been diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression, anxiety induced insomnia, and I suffer from panic attacks, PTSD and night terrors.”
Eaker, 20, went onto describe the alleged environment on the university’s gymnastics team as “unhealthy, unsafe and toxic,” and said she had “reached a turning point and I’m speaking out for all of the women who can’t because they are mentally debilitated and paralyzed by fear.”
“I, too, find myself frozen in moments when fear takes over. But i can no longer stand by while perpetrators are still allowed in sports and are causing young girls and women to suffer,” Eaker wrote.
Eaker ended her post by writing: “I am here to support you because I care about everyone. You are not alone.”
A native of Missouri, Eaker was a member of Utah’s third-place NCAA championship gymnastics teams in 2022 and 2023 and was a two-time All-American on the beam during her time at the University of Utah, according to her biography on the gymnastic team’s website.
Outside of her collegiate gymnastics career, Eaker was also an alternate for the 2020 U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team and a two-time world champion with Team USA, among other highlights, according to her bio.
The University of Utah did not immediately reply to ABC News’ request for comment on Eaker’s claims.
Eaker did not name a coach in her Instagram post, but wrote that the alleged abuse “often happened in individual coach-athlete meetings.”
“I would be isolated in an office with an overpowering coach, door closed, sitting quietly, hardly able to speak because of condescending, sarcastic and manipulative tactics,” she wrote.
Tom Farden has been the sole head coach of Utah’s women’s gymnastics program since 2020.
Earlier this year, the university hired a legal firm to investigate reports that Farden verbally and emotionally abused athletes. The university last month released a report of the investigation’s findings, stating in part that “while Farden’s actions caused some student-athletes to feel ‘increased fear of failure’ and pressure to retain athletics scholarships, he did not engage in ‘any severe, pervasive or egregious’ acts of emotional, verbal or physical abuse or harassment as defined by the SafeSport Code and NCAA regulations.”
The report also found that Farden “more likely than not threw a stopwatch and a cellular telephone in frustration in the presence of student-athletes. These individual acts were not repeated or severe and therefore did not violate SafeSport Code for Physical Acts of Emotional Misconduct which requires repeated or severe physically aggressive behaviors.”
At the time of the report’s release, Farden responded by saying, in part, “I care deeply about the health, safety and well-being of every student whom I am entrusted to coach, to mentor and to support as head coach of the Utah gymnastics program. With that privilege comes great responsibility, and I take very seriously the concerns that were expressed about my behavior and my coaching methods. It has been painful to learn of the negative impacts that my words and actions have created.”
He added, “I take to heart every lesson I have learned through this process, and I am fully committed to improving our student–athlete experience.”
Eaker referred to the investigation in her Instagram post, saying it is “incomplete at best, and I disagree with their findings. I don’t believe it has credibility, because the report omits crucial evidence and information and the few descriptions used are inaccurate.”
As of Monday morning, Farden had not publicly responded to Eaker’s Instagram post.
Christine Brennan, a sports columnist for USA Today, described Eaker’s decision to go public with her allegations a “watershed moment” in the sport of gymnastics, which has faced other recent abuse allegations .
“If we’ve learned anything, it’s that we should be listening to every single athlete, when someone like Kara speaks, as she has, and has the courage and the confidence and the fortitude to come forward in this manner and bare her soul and say that she’s retiring from the sport she loves because it is so broken,” Brennan told ABC News. “This is truly another watershed moment in gymnastics, and it seems to me that University of Utah, with that investigation, has not met the moment.”
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
AMERICAN LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Texas 9, Houston 2
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Detroit 6, Calgary 2
Boston 3, Anaheim 1
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Atlanta 16, Tampa Bay 13
Baltimore 38 Detroit 6
Chicago 30, Las Vegas 12
Cleveland 39, Indianapolis 38
NY Giants 14, Washington 7
New England 29, Buffalo 25
Pittsburgh 24, LA Rams 17
Seattle 20, Arizona 10
Denver 19, Green Bay 17
Kansas City 31, LA Chargers 17
Philadelphia 31, Miami 17
(NEW YORK) — With the fall sports season well under way, young athletes may face pressures from coaches and looming college scholarships to train in only one sport year-round.
But experts have issued a new warning to parents and coaches that focusing only on one sport at an early age comes with risks.
“Specialization at an early age is not really necessary to play at that elite level,” Eric Post, manager of the Sports Medicine Research Laboratory for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said Thursday at a briefing hosted by the National Athletic Trainer’s Association. “It actually is…associated with worse outcomes in terms of injury and burnout from sport.”
Sports specialization is the act of participating in or training for a single sport year-round.
Young athletes often think that specializing will help them avoid injury and improve their skills in order to perform that one sport at an elite level, but that’s not the case, experts say.
“I see pretty often, especially in the rowing world, that parents want to get a competitive edge with their kids getting college scholarships,” Sophia Vitas, a rower on the U.S. National Women’s Rowing Team, said at Thursday’s briefing.
Vita said she knows of many athletes who started rowing young and were recruited by colleges for teams, but didn’t have successful college careers. On the other hand, she said many of her fellow national team rowers were not recruited and were walk-ons to their college teams.
Vitas, set to represent Team USA in the Paris Olympics next year, started rowing at a later age herself, just before she turned 22. She credits experiencing different sports and deciding what she liked and didn’t like in athletics with contributing to her success in rowing today.
Participating in a variety of sports at a young age may help build a good base of athleticism that can prevent injury, which in turn can decrease burnout, according to the panel of experts.
Athletes who play multiple sports collect different types of movement skills that they can use in future athletic endeavors, according to Dr. Michele Labotz, medical director of the University of New England Athletic Training Program.
Research studies published in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine have found that athletes who play multiple sports may have some movement advantages over athletes who just stick to one sport.
“What was interesting is when you looked at the highest of the high specialized athletes, their balance was almost the same as those that didn’t play sports,” said Dr. Gregory Walker, sports medicine doctor at the Children’s Hospital of Colorado Sports Medicine Center. “Whereas the ones that were moderately or low specialized, they actually had balance better than both groups.”
Walker also noted that elite pro athletes like Tom Brady and Roger Federer started out playing sports other than football and tennis.
But coaches and parents don’t hear this advice enough, according to the panel.
Post said parents and young athletes more often hear the message that they need to focus on one sport very young in order to be successful. He urges parents, coaches, and athletes to define success differently.
“We can define success in sport in all different ways, from participating at the highest levels to being physically active when you’re 85 years old,” he said. “There’s a lot of variety of paths in how you can be successful as an athlete.”
According to NATA, there are a few important things to keep in mind for young athletes to stay healthy.
First, kids should delay playing only a single sport year-round as long as possible and should instead sample a variety of sports. This supports general physical fitness and reduces the risk of injury.
To further reduce risk of injury, young athletes should participate in one organized sport per season and not play a single sport more than eight months in a year.
Young athletes should have a minimum of two days off per week for rest and recovery and spend time away from an organized sport at the end of each competitive season, the experts said. This promotes physical and mental recovery and minimizes the risk of injury and burnout or dropout.
A good rule of thumb for young athletes is to not participate in organized sports more hours per week than their age, the experts said.
And the panel reminds parents and coaches that athletics is still about fun for young athletes.
“Keep it fun or else they’re not going to do it,” Labotz said.
Dr. Elizabeth Ghandakly, MD JD, is a resident physician in Internal Medicine from The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Thursday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
AMERICAN LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Houston 10, Texas 3 (Series tied 2-2)
NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
Arizona 2, Philadelphia 1 (Philadelphia leads series 2-1)
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PRESEASON
Boston 127, Charlotte 99
Minnesota 114, Chicago 105
Detroit 118, Oklahoma City 116
Sacramento 116, Utah 113
Denver 103, L.A. Clippers 90
Phoenix 123, LA Lakers 100
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Nashville 4, NY Rangers 1
Florida 3, Toronto 1
Tampa Bay 4, Vancouver 3
Calgary 4, Buffalo 3
Philadelphia 4, Edmonton 1
Vegas 5, Winnipeg 3
Arizona 6, St. Louis 2
Los Angeles 7, Minnesota 3
Dallas 3, Anaheim 2
Seattle 7, Carolina 4
Colorado 4, Chicago 0
Final Boston 3, San Jose 1
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE
Jacksonville 31, New Orleans 24
(NEW YORK) — Mary Lou Retton, the American gymnast who became a sports icon when she won Olympic gold in 1984, is getting stronger as she battles a very rare form of pneumonia,” according to her daughter.
Shayla Kelley Schrepfer, one of Retton’s four daughters, shared on Instagram that the Olympian is making “truly remarkable” progress.
“Although she remains in the ICU, her path to recovery is steadily unfolding. Her fighting spirit is truly shining,” Schrepfer wrote. “Her breathing is becoming stronger, and her reliance on machines is diminishing.”
Schrepfer continued, “Though it’s a lengthy journey, witnessing these improvements is incredibly heartening! She’s responding so well to treatments.”
Retton, 55, has been hospitalized in the intensive care unit for over one week and was initially not able to breathe on her own, according to a fundraising page created for Retton, who is not insured, according to her family.
As of Monday morning, the page had raised over $435,000, far exceeding its original $50,000 goal.
In her message, Schrepfer also thanked people for donating money and praying for her mom.
“Once more, we extend our heartfelt gratitude for your overwhelming love and support,” she said.
Pneumonia is an infection that causes the air sacs of the lungs to fill with fluid, according to the National Institutes of Health.
“When treating patients for pneumonia, reports that they’re relying less and less on clinical assistance, whether that be machines or oxygen are a great prognostic indicator that hopefully means that they’ll need even less assistance in the future,” said Dr. Darien Sutton, an emergency physician and ABC News medical correspondent, who is not involved in Retton’s care.
Retton is most famous for her performance in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, where she scored a series of perfect 10s to become the first-ever American to win an Olympic individual all-round gold, according to her official Olympics biography.
Retton also won two additional silver medals and two bronze medals at the Los Angeles Olympics, making her the most decorated athlete of that Olympics, according to her bio.
Retton has remained an iconic American sports hero in the decades since and was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997.
In 2018, Retton competed on season 27 of ABC’s dancing competition show Dancing with the Stars.
“This has been the time of my life,” Retton said after she and her pro partner, Sasha Farber, were the fifth couple to get eliminated from the competition. “I hadn’t challenged myself in decades and now I challenged myself. I’m off to a fresh new start.”
