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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
United in grief, Ella Toone and Beth Mead form a special bond to shine at Euro 2025
Ella Toone stopped and sent a kiss towards the sky. In moments such as scoring for your country at a major tournament, the most important people can become those who are not there. Toone is 25 and is already appearing at her third major tournament for England. But it's also the first she has played in since the loss of her father Nick to prostate cancer last September. Another goal at Euro 2025 was dedicated to the memory of her most reliable supporter. That Toone has hit red-hot form at the Euros should not be taken for granted. Against Wales, Toone scored, made two assists and had completed 100 per cent of her passes before being taken off at half-time to ensure she did not pick up a second yellow card of the tournament that would have resulted in a suspension for the quarter-finals. But for those 45 minutes Toone played with freedom and assurance, displaying a clarity of thought to find the spaces in the tightly-packed Wales defence while creating other gaps elsewhere. There was the vision to see the risky pass, and the confidence to execute it. In a year where the world must have felt so cruel, Toone has arrived at Euro 2025 with a clear-minded understanding of being exactly where she needs to be. Ella Toone dedicates her goal in England's 6-1 win to her late father Nick (The FA via Getty Images) Her grief, though, has not disappeared. Every day is different and being away from home at a major tournament can present its own challenges. But when Toone is with England she can rely on the support and guidance of Beth Mead, who lost her mother June to ovarian cancer in January 2023 - just six months after winning the Euros. This is Mead's first tournament since losing a parent, too, and the forward also pointed to the sky as she scored in England's 6-1 win over Wales. 'We've really bonded over such a terrible thing,' Toone said. 'It's nice to have someone who's been through it and who understands and knows exactly what's going on and what's going on in my head as well. We've definitely got each other's backs. We're proud of each other and what's nice is that we're constantly talking about them. We know we're doing them proud.' 'We both said in the first game we really struggled a little bit,' Mead said. 'You look to the stands for your person who was standing there and they're not there anymore. I think my mum was the first person I would look for in the stands. I obviously understand what Ella felt in that moment and it's just special to be able to have that moment, think about them and dedicate it to them.' Toone opened up on the death of her father and the pain of his loss in an article for the Players Tribune in January. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer the day after Toone scored in England's Euro 2022 final victory over Germany, but Toone was not told exactly how ill he was until almost two years later and after Manchester United won the FA Cup final last May. By September, a few days before his 60th birthday, he was gone. (Getty Images) Toone didn't take time off at first after her father passed away before the first day of the season. She played on for Manchester United, believing it's what he would have wanted, but struggled for form and it wasn't until she injured her calf in training in November that she paused to reflect. The Players Tribune article was a way for Toone to understand and process her grief. By the start of 2025, she was transformed on the pitch and it has carried into the Euros. Mead called her performance against Wales 'unbelievable'. 'I think Tooney's really coming into her own,' Mead said. 'Sometimes in situations where you feel a little bit low, it brings you to the top of your game. I have felt that and done that before and been in a tough place and come back, and I think you can see that she's been given that kind of aura, that type of energy, and she deserves everything she's getting right now.' Mead said she has been a 'shoulder' for Toone to lean on while they are away in Switzerland. Toone will often come to her questioning the emotions she is still processing and how long that journey will last. 'I'm like, 'It's completely normal. I've been there. I still feel like it now',' Mead said. 'She says she talks so easily about it but ultimately I've had a little bit longer to process it compared to her. We all deal with it differently and I think she's dealing pretty amazingly with it right now.' (The FA via Getty Images) Mead has been on her own journey too, and her goal against Wales was her first for England at the major tournament since she won the golden boot at Euro 2022 after missing the 2023 World Cup due to injury. The chance to take her own moment and dedicate it to her mother June had been long overdue. 'I was absolutely buzzing for Beth,' Toone said. 'That's the Beth that I saw in 2022 at the Euros when she took an extra touch in the box and sat a few defenders down and got a goal. I'm so happy for her. I was buzzing for her that she got that tonight and we both could celebrate to the sky. I'm sure they'll be up there with a few pints in their hand watching us.'
USA Today
7 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
In farewell letter to Houston, Jalen Green predicts great things for Amen Thompson
'I can tell you because I had a front row seat for it — Amen (Thompson) isn't just gonna be great,' former Rockets guard Jalen Green says. 'Amen is gonna be crazy.' As part of his Players Tribune farewell letter to Houston, recently traded guard Jalen Green made it clear that he's a big believer in one of his former Rockets teammates. 'I can tell you because I had a front row seat for it — Amen (Thompson) isn't just gonna be great,' Green wrote. 'Amen is gonna be crazy,' with the final word italicized for emphasis. It's worth noting that as good as Thompson was last season — including NBA All-Defensive First Team honors — it was only his second professional season. He remains just 22 years old. Showcasing elite defense, athleticism, and positional versatility, Thompson averaged 14.1 points (55.7% FG), 8.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.3 blocks in 32.2 minutes per game last season. The 22-year-old became a full-time starter in January and never relinquished the job. At 6-foot-7, Thompson is tall and athletic enough to play in the frontcourt, and he obtained that starting position once power forward Jabari Smith Jr. went down to a multi-week injury in January. Yet, Thompson also has point-guard skills, making him capable of playing and defending anywhere. With Green headed to Phoenix as part of the trade that brought All-Star forward Kevin Durant to Houston, that could put a bit more pressure on Thompson to do more ball-handling and creation in the 2025-26 season. Per Green's own observations, Thompson should be up for the task.
New York Times
25-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
In his Pittsburgh twilight, Andrew McCutchen is still here and still hitting
DETROIT — One morning this winter, Andrew McCutchen walked across a snowy parking lot and entered a training facility north of Pittsburgh. He had recently signed a one-year, $5 million contract with the Pirates for the third year in a row. He nodded at a visitor. 'Yup,' he said. 'I'm still here.' Now 38 years old, he is riding out the latter years of his career in the city where he became a star. Sports unions like these — aging stars back home — often create strange balances, where sweet nostalgia squares off against harsher realities. Advertisement McCutchen is still a recognizable name, a popular face, a last vestige of the last good era of Pirates baseball. He won the 2013 National League MVP when he was worth a stellar 7.8 bWAR. He helped the Pirates to three straight playoff appearances. When the Pirates traded McCutchen to the Giants before the 2018 season, he wrote for the Players Tribune, talking of wanting to be like Derek Jeter with the Yankees or Cal Ripken Jr. with the Orioles — icons who only played for one team, synonymous with the city and the logo. 'I always wanted to be that guy for Pittsburgh,' he wrote. Instead, reality got in the way. He split 2018 between the Giants and the Yankees. Then came three years with the Phillies and one with the Brewers. But McCutchen never sold his home in the Pittsburgh suburbs. He stayed in the city where he met his wife, a former member of the Pirates' spirit squad, and saw his children born. His oldest is named Steel. Even when his career took him elsewhere, McCutchen did charity work in the city. Before the 2023 season, when McCutchen was a free agent, his wife encouraged him to reach out to Pirates owner Bob Nutting. McCutchen, still in some ways the reserved son of a minister, was unsure. He finally sent the text. And when the Pirates soon offered that first $5 million deal, McCutchen did the only thing that felt right. He came back. Then he did it again. And again. 'At this stage and this point in my career, you don't want to be a guy who bounces around going from place to place, team to team, trying to learn new organizations,' McCutchen said Wednesday. 'You're having to uproot your family. For me, that's not something that I really want to be doing and I haven't wanted to do.' The initial return of this prodigal Pittsburgh son was a neat story that came with deeper, more complex realizations. Advertisement At his locker in Detroit's visiting clubhouse last week, McCutchen leaned back in a black leather chair. Talked in a soft voice. Admitted he floated through so many seasons, either unaware or maybe unwilling to acknowledge the finitude of his career. 'It's one of those things. … You don't realize time and how time works,' he said. 'I feel like I've been doing it at this point for 16 years, but a lot of those 16 years, it didn't seem like time was changing. It seemed like time was kind of in the same place.' Now, here in the twilight, on a Pirates team facing another frustrating summer, realities are finally setting in. 'I've gotten older, but I kinda feel the same,' he said, stroking his jawline. 'Sure, facial features and things change. It's not really older. You just get more tired, that's the way I look at it.' He's one of the few who make it this far. In a time where aging players are increasingly devalued, McCutchen is one of only 12 players age 38 or older on an MLB roster. Eight of those players are pitchers. 'We can all look at the numbers, right?' McCutchen said. 'There ain't many 38-year-olds playing right now, especially position players. I'm in a unique spot to be able to still have an opportunity to play. I'm just trying to hold up my end of the bargain.' In this game, time and numbers go hand-in-hand. Play as long as McCutchen, and you'll see your name in surreal places. 'Shoot,' Pirates manager Don Kelly said, 'he passed Roberto Clemente the other night.' After the game where McCutchen tied Clemente for third on the Pirates' all-time home run list, he tried to play off the accomplishment with nonchalance. He joked about taking so long to hit his fifth homer of the season. 'Played long enough to have the opportunity,' he told reporters. On June 11, McCutchen belted a ball over the left-center field wall at PNC Park. He passed Clemente with his 241st home run as a Pirate. He now trails only Willie Stargell (475) and Ralph Kiner (301) in franchise history. In Pirates record books, McCutchen also ranks 10th in runs, ninth in hits, seventh in doubles and RBIs. Advertisement 'It would be cool to see what the numbers would be if I was here my whole career,' McCutchen said a few days later. 'Instead of top 10 we're talking top five, top three in a lot of categories.' Truth is it might have taken a team like the Pirates — constricted by ownership, still incentivized to sell tickets and ultimately willing to devote an aging hitter to a near-full-time DH role — for this reunion to happen and sustain. But all those factors aside, there is intrinsic value in McCutchen's second act here in the city. 'I think it does (matter)' said Kelly, who once played with McCutchen in Triple A. 'To provide the leadership and experience that he does has been invaluable for us.' People in Pittsburgh have tattoos of McCutchen on their bodies. Pittsburgh Magazine named him 2023's Pittsburgher of the Year. The dreadlocks are long gone and the speed that once made him must-see TV has diminished. But when new players come to the Pirates, they often talk of that pinch-themselves scene, meeting McCutchen for the first time. 'It's a fan moment first,' Pirates catcher Henry Davis said. 'It's been pretty special to see a player you watched growing up still doing it, and obviously you can learn a lot just by how he goes about his business.' When McCutchen first entered the league, it was easy to look at the likes of Willie Mays and Rickey Henderson, these legends who played so long, and figure he could be just like them. 'If I want to play 20 years, I'll play 20 years,' McCutchen said. 'I can play until 42. That's the way I looked at it.' But those players are all-time greats for a reason. Not everyone makes it 20-plus seasons. Especially in today's game, veteran position players are a rarer breed than ever. 'It seems kind of like a thing of the past,' McCutchen said. 'A guy playing 20 years? Yeah, right.' McCutchen's return to the Pirates two years ago is when — perhaps for the first time — he really felt like a veteran, when the truths of time finally started to hit. He was back in a place that was supposed to be familiar. But all his old teammates? Gone. His old manager, Clint Hurdle? Gone. The old front office? Gone. Advertisement 'I didn't know anybody,' he said. McCutchen had lasted long enough to see a franchise go through an entire cycle, building, peaking, tearing down, starting over again. 'That's probably one of the bigger moments of my career where I was like, 'Yeah, I have been around for a long time,' he said. Now on a last-place team with a 32-48 record entering play Wednesday — a rebuild turned into an arrested development, with fans increasingly angered at Nutting's tight-pocket ownership — McCutchen is a steady presence in a year of chaos. The Pirates started 12-26, then fired manager Derek Shelton and replaced him with Kelly. They've endured controversies, covering a sign honoring Clemente with an advertisement for an alcoholic beverage and dumping personalized bricks fans purchased years ago at a recycling facility. Tragically, a fan fell 20 feet from the stands onto the field while celebrating a McCutchen double. In the midst of all the turmoil, the team has been playing better since Kelly took over as manager. But even with a superstar in Paul Skenes, an icon in McCutchen and a fascinating unicorn in Oneil Cruz, no one is counting on the Pirates as some comeback story. This is still the franchise that hasn't signed a free agent to a multiyear deal since 2016. For a short time last August, the Pirates were playing meaningful baseball. McCutchen seemed energized. Now they're back in the cellar. If McCutchen has any real thoughts on the state of the franchise, he kept them to himself. 'When I go out on the field I try to just be as consistent as I can,' McCutchen said. 'I don't try to think much past that. Try not to think too deep into whatever is going on or whatnot.' But a few weeks ago, he talked of empathizing with the Pirates' tortured fan base: 'It's plain and simple,' he said. 'You want to have a competitive team and feel confident that that team is competitive … They're obviously frustrated about what they've seen in the last few years, and I feel that frustration from them. They want to see a winner and rightfully so. They deserve it.' Advertisement One other important thing to note in all this: McCutchen has remained an above league-average hitter even here in these final years. As a DH, he has totaled only 3.0 bWAR since the start of 2023. But he hit 20 home runs for the 10th time in his career last season and had a 105 OPS+. This year, he has gone deep eight times. He's hitting .271 and has a 119 OPS+. He hits in the top of the lineup, and on baseball's weakest offensive team, he is among the Pirates' most important players. 'We're trying to create a winning environment here and do things we haven't done in a long time,' Davis said. 'He happens to have been here when they did it, so you try to keep your ears open.' For McCutchen, this has not been an elongated farewell tour. This is not Griffey's last ride with the Mariners. There's pride that comes with performing. An athlete's focus, too, that sometimes disables the urge to reflect. 'Try not to dwell too much on the past,' he said, 'and try my best not to focus on the future. Just be where I am and be in the moment. ' On the rare occasion when McCutchen allows himself to zoom out, he sees this for what it is. He doesn't seem interested in playing anywhere but Pittsburgh. He also won't put a target on how much longer he wants to play. 'I don't know my plans,' he said. 'Only God knows my plans. So I don't think about how much longer. I just know when it's time, it's time, and I'll know that.' He motions toward the locker of Skenes, the next face of this franchise. The 15-year age gap between McCutchen and Skenes is equal to the gap between Skenes and McCutchen's oldest son. 'That's wild,' McCutchen said. 'Here I was as a rookie when he was this little kid, and now here he is playing in the big leagues, and I'm still here. He's had a full life from then to now. A lot has happened in that time frame. While me, I've had this life that's been relatively the same.' Advertisement McCutchen leaned back in the chair again. Nodded and let out a melancholy sigh. Time is starting to move differently. Clocks tick, sand trickles. McCutchen feels it, understands it. He's still here. 'And still capable,' he said. 'It's not gonna last forever, so I just try to appreciate it as much as I can.'
Reuters
30-05-2025
- Health
- Reuters
Shiffrin faced PTSD in recovery from Killington crash
NEW YORK, May 30 (Reuters) - Twice Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder after a grisly crash during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont, in November left her with a puncture wound in her abdomen and severe muscle damage. The American wrapped up her season in March with a record-extending 101st World Cup win but wrote in the Players' Tribune, opens new tab on Friday that the crash in Killington - and another suffered at the beginning of 2024 in Cortina - took a mental toll. "Those two crashes maybe built on one another. I talked with my therapist about that, and she let me know that past trauma, or a history of traumatic events, can sometimes affect your reaction to new traumatic events," wrote Shiffrin, who lost her father suddenly in an accident in 2020. "Maybe when I crashed and got that puncture wound, maybe that was kind of a perfect-storm situation for PTSD to take hold. But who knows, really. With all this stuff, there's just a ton of nuance, and so much that we don't know for certain." Shiffrin, who is loved by American fans and praised by her fellow athletes for her upbeat attitude and resilience, said that getting back in the starting gate has helped the most in overcoming "the visions and the images I kept seeing." She wrote that after putting in the work on her mental health, she felt like herself again. "It was just continuing to get back up to the start gate. Just literally the process of going up the mountain and doing the thing I know how to do, again and again," wrote Shiffrin. "I just needed to keep doing it. Needed to keep reminding myself — proving to myself, really — that the vast majority of times when I am training or racing … nothing terrible happens."
Associated Press
30-05-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Shiffrin says in essay she feels 'like myself again' after recovering from ski racing crash, PTSD
Two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin finally feels 'like myself again' after recovering from a ski racing crash last season and lingering post-traumatic stress disorder. Shiffrin described in an essay for The Players' Tribune released Friday the physical and mental hurdles she needed to clear after her serious spill during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont, on Nov. 30. In the crash, something punctured Shiffrin's side and caused severe damage to her oblique muscles. 'Everyone knows what it feels like to have a bad cough. But PTSD … it's not like that,' the 30-year-old from Edwards, Colorado, wrote. 'It comes in all shapes and sizes. Everyone experiences it in their own way, and no two cases are exactly alike.' Shiffrin was leading after the first run of the GS that day in Killington. With the finish line in sight on her final run, she lost an edge and slid into a gate, flipping over her skis. The all-time winningest Alpine World Cup ski racer then slammed into another gate before coming to a stop in the protective fencing. To this day, she doesn't know what led to the puncture wound, only that it was 'a millimeter from pretty catastrophic,' she told The Associated Press. Shiffrin wrote in The Players' Tribune it was 'difficult to explain what the pain felt like. But the closest I can get would probably be, it was like … not only was there a knife stabbing me, but the knife was actually still inside of me.' In late January, Shiffrin returned to the World Cup circuit. The giant slalom, though, remained a cause of anxiety and she skipped the event at world championships. Ever so steadily, she's working on overcoming the mental trauma surrounding the GS as she gears up for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Games. She won an Olympic gold medal in the discipline at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. She's been working with a psychologist to conquer her mental obstacles. 'I can admit that there were some extremely low moments,' recounted Shiffrin, who won her 100th career World Cup ski race in February. 'Times when I started second-guessing myself, or was critical of myself because I felt like I was letting what happened mess with me so much. It was like: Come on, Mikaela, people have had way worse crashes than that, way worse injuries. Those people got through it. What is wrong with you? 'On particularly bad days, I'd question my motivation, or whether I still wanted to do this anymore. In my head, I'd be saying to myself: You know what, I kind of couldn't care less if I ever race again.' She and the therapist began looking at her recovery through the prism of PTSD. 'With me, I also think it's possible that the crash I had at the beginning of 2024 in Cortina, and then Killington happening. … that those two crashes maybe built on one another,' Shiffrin said. 'I talked with my therapist about that, and she let me know that past trauma, or a history of traumatic events, can sometimes affect your reaction to new traumatic events.' She lost her dad, Jeff, five years ago in a home accident. Her fiancé and fellow ski racer Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway is still recovering from a serious ski crash on Jan. 13, 2024. 'Maybe when I crashed and got that puncture wound, maybe that was kind of a perfect-storm situation for PTSD to take hold,' Shiffrin wrote. Shiffrin said one thing that's helped is 'getting back to a place of joy.' She closed her essay with: 'All I can do is smile with appreciation. Because, finally .... I feel like myself again.' ___ AP skiing:
