Had a belly full. Could Chinese swimmers have eaten 5 kilos of food en route to failed doping test?
The head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency told senators that Chinese swimmers would have had to eat around 11 pounds (5 kilograms) of food to test for the amounts of the performance enhancer that resulted in the much-debated positive drug tests from 2021 that were later disregarded.
'It's unbelievable to think that Tinkerbell just showed up and sprinkled it all over the kitchen,' Travis Tygart said in a Senate hearing Tuesday focused on the World Anti-Doping Agency's response to the doping case.
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Forbes
34 minutes ago
- Forbes
Explaining The Unraveling Of The 2018 Boston Red Sox
The 2018 Boston Red Sox presented a case for one of the best teams in MLB history. They finished the regular season with 108 wins, which only 12 other teams have been able to accomplish. Unlike all of those other teams, Boston went on to win the World Series in commanding fashion. Throughout the postseason, the Red Sox lost just three games. In those 14 games, the offense produced a .724 OPS with 17 home runs and 80 RBIs. Since that historic season, however, the Red Sox have only managed to reach the postseason in one season. Now, after three straight seasons of Boston failing to finish above .500, they find themselves in the National spotlight not due to their series-altering sweep of the first-place Yankees but for losing another member of the championship roster. But, why has this become a recurring theme for the Red Sox? Just hours after his home run capitalized the team's fifth win in a row, slugger Rafael Devers was traded to the San Francisco Giants. The trade came after months of public discourse between Devers and the Red Sox front office regarding his removal from third base. For an abbreviated summary, Devers had served as the everyday third baseman in Boston since his debut in 2017. Entering 2025, Devers had started just 20 games at designated hitter, compared to 951 at third base. When the Red Sox signed Alex Bregman in free agency, however, the writing was on the wall that Devers may need to find a new position. Despite his hesitancy about giving up his role, Devers adjusted to being an everyday DH. Before the trade, he posted a .905 OPS with a team-leading 56 walks. On May 2nd however, when first baseman Triston Casas suffered a season-ending injury, Devers showed his flexibility is limited to the DH position. Devers continued to leave his glove in the clubhouse two weeks later when Bregman suffered an injury that placed him on the injured list. Instead of the three-time All-Star third baseman taking his former position back, Devers remained at DH while Marcelo Mayer took the hot corner. This decision, whether justified or not, was ultimately the final straw for Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow. The lack of time to learn first base, or to eventually become reacclimated with third base, was the justification Devers gave for refusing to play the field. The public attention about the disagreement is where the finger could be pointed at the Red Sox's front office, as it seemed that they may not be attempting to protect their franchise centerpiece like a team typically does. So, despite just signing Devers to a 10-year, $313.5 million contract through 2034, the final member of the 2018 roster has officially left the organization. The homegrown talent joins a group that could be mistaken for an All-Star team, who continued to produce at an above-average level since leaving the Red Sox. For context, here are the top five players outside of Devers to be let go by the Red Sox via trade or free agency. To replace those key pieces, the Red Sox saw players like Alex Verdugo take Bett's spot in right field, to which he has produced 9.1 WAR since joining the Red Sox. Kike Hernandez and Ceddanne Rafaela combined for a 4.4 WAR in the previous three years at shortstop. And from the DH spot, several players have collected a WAR of 5.7, with 2.3 coming from Devers just this year. This lack of signing talent to long-term contracts has been apparent in their team payrolls. In 2018, the Red Sox had the largest payroll in Major League Baseball at $227.4 million. In 2025, they have fallen to 19th in baseball, only spending $192.4 million. Despite this drop off in payroll, their stadium attendance has stayed the same since raising a banner. In both 2018 and 2025, the Red Sox ranked ninth in MLB for average attendance, despite having one of the smallest ballparks across the league. The Devers situation is yet another example of the Red Sox front office hoping to avoid paying for past production, which is common in professional baseball. This hesitancy to sign players to long-term deals ended their ability to transition their historic 2018 roster into a dynasty. It also exposed aspects of their scouting and player development, which had a spotlight put on them after allowing so many of their homegrown assets to leave the organization. Simply put, the departure of Rafael Devers marks the closing chapter of the 2018 championship core. As the Red Sox continue to reshape their identity, their approach to roster building and player development will play a defining role in the future of one of baseball's biggest franchises.
Medscape
42 minutes ago
- Medscape
Rurality, Age May Shape Phone-Only Mental Health Care Access
Patients living in rural areas and those aged 65 years or older had increased odds of receiving mental health care exclusively by phone. METHODOLOGY: Researchers explored factors linked to receiving phone-only mental health care among patients within the Department of Veterans Affairs. They included data for 1,156,146 veteran patients with at least one mental health-specific outpatient encounter between October 2021 and September 2022 and at least one between October 2022 and September 2023. Patients were categorized as those who received care through phone only (n = 49,125) and those who received care through other methods (n = 1,107,021. Care was received exclusively through video (6.39%), in-person (6.63%), or a combination of in-person, video, and/or phone (86.98%). Demographic and clinical predictors, including rurality, age, sex, race, ethnicity, and the number of mental health diagnoses (< 3 vs ≥ 3), were evaluated. TAKEAWAY: The phone-only group had a mean of 6.27 phone visits, whereas those who received care through other methods had a mean of 4.79 phone visits. Highly rural patients had 1.50 times higher odds of receiving phone-only mental health care than their urban counterparts (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.50; P < .0001). < .0001). Patients aged 65 years or older were more than twice as likely to receive phone-only care than those younger than 30 years (aOR, ≥ 2.17; P < .0001). < .0001). Having fewer than three mental health diagnoses and more than 50% of mental health visits conducted by medical providers was associated with higher odds of receiving mental health care exclusively by phone (aORs, 2.03 and 1.87, respectively; P < .0001). IN PRACTICE: 'The results of this work help to characterize the phone-only patient population and can serve to inform future implementation efforts to ensure that patients are receiving care via the modality that best meets their needs,' the authors wrote. SOURCE: This study was led by Samantha L. Connolly, PhD, at the VA Boston Healthcare System in Boston. It was published online on June 13, 2025, in The Journal of Rural Health . LIMITATIONS: This study focused on a veteran population which may limit the generalizability of the findings to other groups. Additionally, its cross-sectional design restricted the ability to determine cause-and-effect relationships between factors and phone-only care. DISCLOSURES: This study was supported by the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The authors declared having no conflicts of interest. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. Credit Lead image: Nick Sokoloff/WebMD Ignite Medscape Medical News © 2025 WebMD, LLC Cite this: Edited by Manasi Talwadekar. Rurality and Age May Shape Phone-Only Mental Health Care Access Among Veterans - Medscape - June 18, 2025.
Forbes
44 minutes ago
- Forbes
Versatile Offense, Stingy Pitching Fueling Tampa Bay Rays' Recent Surge
NEW YORK: José Caballero and Jonathan Aranda of the Tampa Bay Rays celebrate after defeating the New ... More York Mets 7-5 in the game at Citi Field on June 13, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by) It is not so much that the Tampa Bay Rays have been winning and creeping up on the New York Yankees in the American League East. Rather, it has been the fashion in which they have been doing it. That is to say they have been getting it done seemingly every which way imaginable. Take, for instance, May 31 when they hit five home runs in a 16-3 victory at Houston. Or June 5 against visiting Texas when, with two outs in the ninth inning and the Rays trailing 3-2, they walked off by scoring a pair of runs on a ball that did not leave the infield. Taylor Walls' grounder was fielded by second baseman Marcus Semien and somehow Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero scored on a play that no doubt had Rangers' manager Bruce Bochy spitting up on the bus ride back to the hotel. 'You're not living and dying by the home run ball,' said Brandon Lowe. 'You're not living and dying by having four hits in an inning. We can hit the home run. We can get four hits in an inning. We can bunt a guy (home) and (score runs with) good baserunning. It's a dangerous thing to have as an offense when you have so many ways that you can score.' The Rays, who head into play Wednesday 2.5 games behind the Yankees, had won 19 of 25 prior to losing to the Orioles at Steinbrenner Field on Tuesday evening. They scored at least seven runs in 10 of the wins and had at least a four-run margin of victory in 10 games. Each of the six losses was by one or two runs, and by a total of eight runs. 'It feels like a pretty complete offense right now,' said manager Kevin Cash. 'The home runs have been coming, the base hits, the good decisions on the basepaths, getting bunts down when needed. We are doing a lot of things really well.' While contributions have come from top to bottom in the lineup, the Rays' longest-tenured players, Lowe and Yandy Diaz, have been hot. On May 13, Lowe was hitting .199 with a .567 OPS. Through Tuesday evening's game against the Orioles, the numbers were .263/.775. In 15 games since May 29, Diaz is hitting .369 (24-for-65) to raise his average from .238 to .266. 'They have been our best hitters for quite some time, and I know to start the year they were not getting the hits or results that they wanted,' said Cash. 'They were doing a lot of things (not seen in the box score) that we really appreciated like continuing to hit the ball hard. What is taking shape with our offense is that we have had a bunch of really good at-bats from six to nine (in the order), then turning over to get to the top of the lineup and present opportunities for those guys to knock them in.' Which brings us to the bottom half of the lineup. Jake Mangum, who made his MLB debut March 30, was a sparkplug before he missed five weeks (April 24 to May 30) with a groin strain, and has been sparkplug since returning. In fact, he has been good as gold with runners in scoring position this season hitting .475 (19-for-40) with 20 RBI. The rookie outfielder is also 10-for-10 in stolen bases on a team that leads major in thefts with 97. 'We have a lot of faith in each other,' said Mangum. 'We have a lot of confidence in not just ourselves, but each other. We have a great pitching staff, we have a great offense and we have to keep going.' NEW YORK: Drew Rasmussen of the Tampa Bay Rays throws a pitch during the second inning of the game ... More against the New York Mets at Citi Field on June 14, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by) Put four runs on the board and the Rays are likely to win. Score five runs and the opposition better say its prayers. Indeed, the Rays are 32-7 when scoring at least four runs and an eye-opening 26-2 when at least five runners touch the plate, the best figure in the majors. Of course, for such numbers to surface, the pitching must be doing its job. The Rays are third in the American League in ERA (3.44) and WHIP (1.18) with the bullpen contributing mightily to the cause, including piecing together a shutout streak of 17 2/3 innings that was snapped by the O's on Tuesday. The starters and bullpen have complemented each other very well, whether it is the latter bailing out a member of the rotation following a subpar outing or a starting pitcher going deep to the give the 'pen a breather. A prime example of the former would be Taj Bradley lasting only four innings (five unearned runs) at Citi Field against the Mets on June 13. Five relievers followed and combined to blank New York on three hits over five innings in a 7-5 win. On the flip side, Ryan Pepiot took the mound Monday evening versus Baltimore and allowed only four hits and one run in eight innings. That gave the bullpen a breather in the midst of the Rays playing 19 games in 20 days. 'They are certainly feeding off each other,' said Cash. 'The starters are a tightknit group, the relievers are a tightknit group and they are all pulling for each other.' They know how to induce double plays as well. The Rays are second in MLB with the opposition grounding into 70 twin killings with four of the five starters – Shane Baz (12), Taj Bradley (11), Zack Littell (11) and Drew Rasmussen (11) among the leaders. The staff also helps itself in limiting free passes as the Rays are second in the majors with a 2.71 BB/9 rate. Littell has been sparkling in that area with a mark of 1.07.
