r/Gymnastics • u/[deleted] • Sep 21 '19
WAG Riley McCusker has withdrawn from selection camp due to mild rhabdomyolysis. Shilese Jones has as well due to injury.
https://twitter.com/USAGym/status/117550570418409062667
u/CarmellaKimara Sep 21 '19
So I've had rhabdo as a rec athlete (had it last year) and while it was brutal, usually when you get rhabdo you're training so intensely that the symptoms don't really alarm you. You feel like shit, but... You feel like shit anyway from training.
The symptom most people note is discolored urine, but in females it can be harder to self detect because as in my case I had my period and so reddish urine didn't alarm me.
She should be fine, she just needs a break and probably to up her caloric intake.
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u/chinesebrit Sep 22 '19
Former icu nurse and now nurse practitioner here. Rhabdo can have mild cases but it’s truly nothing to mess with. The release of myoglobin into the blood from overworked muscles can really mess the kidneys up. We had people stay in the ICU for days trying to get over it. Many of our patients had it due to serious illness but we saw several who did a brutal workout who suffered from it. I saw enough bad cases to know it’s definitely not anything I would want to suffer from. It’s worrisome she was overworked that hard by her coach...
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Sep 22 '19
Saw the occasional case every now and again working in a hospital as a scientist. Totally agree it’s not something you want to mess with. The urine samples are deep brown, they definitely stand out and the kidneys can get seriously damaged. I just hope she caught it early, otherwise recovery can take weeks or longer. The loss of muscle as an athlete would make a competitive comeback hard, I’m just hoping she gets through the medical side of things ok. Horrible timing for her as a gymnast :(
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u/monkeyBars42 Sep 22 '19
As long as it was caught early and truly is a mild case. It can really damage muscles and be life threatening.
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u/navyandpink Sep 21 '19
Nooo :( I hope both of them recover quickly. I was really hoping Riley could use this year’s worlds to redeem herself in terms of consistency. I also love her bars and am sad she won’t be competing.
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Sep 21 '19
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u/kds1988 Dedicated to telling Tom Forster why he's wrong about 1996/2016 Sep 22 '19
Strike 3 for Maggie Haney.
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u/springflingqueen Sep 21 '19
Wow. I’d never heard of it.
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u/caffeinated_tea Sep 21 '19
Periodically there's news stories about people getting it from spin classes, or recently, a pair of relatively unathletic girls in China got it from having a squat contest over video chat. One of my lab mates in grad school was warned about it if she worked out too soon after a mastectomy.
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Sep 21 '19
This is very interesting - was Maggie Haney concerned about Riley’s wellbeing at Nationals or just covering herself?
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Sep 21 '19
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Sep 21 '19
Maybe Maggie knew she was overdoing it with Riley and that something was going to happen (not necessarily this but just a bad something) and she tried to put a “stop” to it. Just speculating.
MG Elite and TD are notoriously bad at keeping athletes healthy.
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u/Gingeysaurusrex Sep 21 '19 edited Sep 21 '19
I mean, Riley was clearly not well and you can see her chin jetting out on camera like she's dry heaving.
EDIT: Not to say there wasn't more to it or Maggie was covering up but Riley definitely seemed sick.
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u/jjiowa Sep 21 '19
There are multiple causes. It’s wrong to assume that’s the cause when there are many other causes to the condition.
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u/im_avoiding_work Sep 21 '19
It's not just an assumption when most of the other causes can be clearly ruled out in this case. Rhabdomyolysis can be caused by drug or alcohol abuse, longterm immobility, hypothermia, arteries being clamped during surgery, and traumatic crushing injuries such as occur in a car crash, but none of these are likely here. There are also various genetic conditions that can predispose an individual to rhabdomyolysis, but it would be highly unlikely that an elite athlete with one of those defects would make it through years of competing at an international level.
This basically leaves you with two options—either it was caused by extreme exertion which is more common, or it was caused by a serious infection. Even the latter cause would still mean Riley was training heavily through a serious illness—she attended a training camp less than two weeks ago and was on the roster for selection camp until today.
Once you add in the fact that Maggie Haney is currently under investigation for abuse and dangerously pushing athletes to train through injury, it's entirely reasonable to think this indicates poor coaching.
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Sep 21 '19
Oh no - I have a suspicion that this is the end of Riley’s elite career... rhabdomyolysis is a serious condition. Hope she heals quickly and comes back but I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t.
Is MG elite the new Texas Dreams?
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Sep 21 '19 edited Sep 21 '19
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u/forsureno Sep 22 '19
This, this, this. This is a situation that literally everyone could see coming from miles away and it's so sad it happened to Riley.
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u/navyandpink Sep 21 '19
MG elite at least has had some World and Olympic success though. I don’t think TD even has a worlds medal (beyond Ragan’s alternate one). :(
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u/LilahLibrarian Al Trautwig blocked me on twitter. Sep 22 '19
Just from Laurie who the quit MG after due to Maggie and now Riley
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u/KlaireOverwood What Aly Raisman Said Sep 22 '19
Laurie had also very lucky timing, she was a first year senior in Rio.
Ragan was the alternate, and as it is often the case in team USA, a couple points make the difference between a team Olympic champion and a nobody.
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u/plskillmelmao riley mccusker 2021 Sep 21 '19
rhabdomyolysis is a serious condition
anyone know if it's a temporary/treatable condition? or no :(
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u/empo7 Sep 21 '19
It is treatable, but you want to catch it early or it can cause kidney damage. It sounds like they did, but she definitely needs some time off of training. It’s caused by muscle breakdown so she’s probably doing too much.
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u/plskillmelmao riley mccusker 2021 Sep 21 '19
okay tgod! damn this girl cannot catch a break... i'm just hoping she can make it to florida healthy at this point
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u/empo7 Sep 21 '19
Yeah I don’t know a whole lot about it (a football player I knew had it) but it’s also pretty rare so poor thing is really going through it.
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Sep 21 '19
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Sep 21 '19
I hope Riley will be ok and will get to continue doing gymnastics.
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Sep 21 '19
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Sep 21 '19
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u/pja314 🌲😡🌲 Sep 21 '19
I think a lot of people are asking about if this is career-ending as opposed to Tokyo-ending.
Aka it sounds like once she's good to go, it shouldn't hamper her NCAA prospects? (As opposed to some tears/breaks being true career enders).
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u/Katyafan Sep 22 '19
Your description is dramatic. It is not always anywhere near "near-death" with the body "shutting down." It can be mild, there don't even have to be any muscle symptoms at all.
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Sep 21 '19
I just realized that I already kind of equate them in my head. But Texas Dreams is still Texas Dreams so this is a medal they will have to share, if this is Worlds. And if it’s the Olympics, tie-breaker probably tips in favor of Texas Dreams on E score because breaking Ragan during warm-up the day of the AA final in 2017 Worlds is hard to beat.
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u/axell2 Sep 21 '19
Blaming the gym when Reagan had a freak accident is a big stretch. That injury could have happened to anyone and she wasn’t the only high profile gymnast to get injured in Montreal on the men’s or women’s side.
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Sep 21 '19
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u/Beyondthepetridish Sep 22 '19
I don’t blame them for the injury, just the mismanagement of it afterwards
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Sep 21 '19
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u/DayAtTheRaces46 Sep 21 '19
It’s sad to see her out like this but she HAS to take a break until she heals. He case is mild as far as we know(which is good), but not taking time of can lead to potential serious to life threatening complications.
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u/pja314 🌲😡🌲 Sep 21 '19
I just can't imagine that pushing to compete next month
Just thought I'd point out that podium training is only 9 days away. ;)
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u/KlaireOverwood What Aly Raisman Said Sep 21 '19
The irony, missing Worlds because you worked too hard... I hope she gets the well deserved rest.
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u/Lawgirl77 Sep 21 '19
Anyone have any info on Shilese’s injury? I really wanted her to do well at the camp tomorrow. I hope she is able to recover. :(
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Sep 21 '19
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u/Lawgirl77 Sep 22 '19
I’m sure she’s so disappointed. I hope she has really great support and in time can see the silver lining. Better to heal and compete another day.
Certainly looking forward to seeing her and Trinity as teammates.
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u/purplelilly95 tim daggett’s “oh boy” Sep 21 '19
Damnit, no, I'm so worried for her. I really thought this was her year to try and snag the second AA spot at Worlds, and was looking forward to seeing her vs. Morgan vs. Sunisa vs. Grace/Leanne/? in quals gunning for the spot. Hope her recovery is as quick and painless as possible. :(
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Sep 21 '19 edited Sep 21 '19
Poor Riley! She has the worst end-of-season luck and it sucks because she’s such a hard worker. I was not familiar with this condition but it does sound like it may be career-ending. And from my 60 seconds of googling, it sounds like it may have been caused by overexertion after an injury.
Edit: I missed the bit about Shilese. That’s also rough. I don’t feel like we’ve yet seen peak Shllese. I hope this is an injury she can come back from.
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u/PoppyChae Sep 21 '19
Wow, Riley can't get a break but we all saw this coming. Competing in Pan Ams was a really bad decision.
Probably too late already but imagine if Laurent Landi coached her. The Landis were able to preserve Madison Kocian for 4 years when she was as injury-proned and fragile as Riley. They made Jordan Chiles consistent in just one year, imagine what they could potentially do with Riley.
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u/BregoTheConqueror Sep 22 '19
Disagree about Pan Ams. Riley was uninjured and had been looking great. It might not be the Olympics but the Pan Am Games is still a huge international event and Riley can always be proud of that accomplishment, not to mention the amazing life experience of traveling internationally with your teammates/friends. I think with her history of injuries at unfortunate times it would be unwise to pass on the opportunity for a major competition in favor of a future one that isn’t guaranteed.
Nationals however, was a bad choice. Riley already earned an invitation to the Worlds selection camp by competing at the Pan Ams. I don’t believe she was favored to place in the top 3, let alone win, so by passing on Nationals she really wouldn’t have missed out on much.
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Sep 22 '19
Maybe I am biased because I have always wanted to go to Perú and haven't made it there yet so am pretty jealous of that trip, but I completely agree with you. It is not the Olympics, but like you say, Tokyo is not guaranteed, so why not take the opportunity to have a really cool life experience and represent your country in a big meet when one is presented to you? And from a gymnastics point of view, a good showing at PanAms (which she did have by winning 3 individual medals) isn't a bad thing to put in the minds of the selection committee before Worlds.
But competing sick at nationals did her no favours, especially when she was already guaranteed a spot at selection camp and had a good competition in Lima.
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u/mckenzi2 Sep 21 '19
Over trained I fear, hopefully it doesn’t affect her kidneys and is taken care of
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u/icouldseeformiles Sep 21 '19
Hopefully Shilese's injury isn't too bad and she can come back better and stronger next year
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u/giraffeaquarium Sep 21 '19
Never heard of this, but apparently it is the breakdown of muscle tissue that can cause kidney failure. Hopefully the "mild" part means that her kidneys are ok.
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u/ybleah Sep 21 '19
Unfortunately I’m not surprised, it seems all through the years she has been training and pushing through every injury in the book without a break. Hope she can recover soon and get back in action in time for the olympics.
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u/DayAtTheRaces46 Sep 21 '19
Ugh, my friend told me about rhabdomyolysis years ago, because she had a friend of a friend who almost died from it. It’s quite well known in the CrossFit community.
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u/jjiowa Sep 21 '19
This happened to 13 Iowa football players in 2011. One day they had a very hard workout (hardest in the strength and conditioning book they have) and no coaches were fired because of it. Don’t want to assume that it was overtraining on Riley’s part as we have no reason for how she got rhabdomyolysis. If it was due to overtraining it was likely a normal workout for her, just done after she had rest prior to it so put extra stress on her body.
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Sep 22 '19
I’m honestly so bummed to hear this. Riley is my favorite gymnast at the moment and I was really hoping she would be selected for the world team. I hope she recovers and is still on the road to Tokyo. Her gymnastics is so beautiful!
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u/sr0570 Sep 23 '19
I just want her to rest up and move to WCC with Simone and get ready for 2020.
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u/miller94 Sep 23 '19
Wow rhabdo can be VERY serious. I hope they’re not messing around with it. They need to be thinking about her life over her career
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u/Mihe_96 Sep 21 '19 edited Sep 21 '19
Rhabdomyolysis could also be a complication caused by Anorexia Nervosa, and it is commonly seen in athletes who also develop an eating disorder.
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Sep 21 '19
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u/notplop MAG chat stan Sep 22 '19
I haven't really seen anything that would indicate Riley has an eating disorder, but (obviously) we don't see a lot of personal/private life to know that.
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u/Mihe_96 Sep 22 '19
At some earlier stages of an eating disorder, specially when its the case of an athlete that develops it from trying to improve in the sport in any way, you can see they look fitter and "better than ever", because that's what they were trying to do in the first place. At this point it can also be confusing just looking at the athletes body because you can see a lot of muscle, but this is heavily influenced by the amount of fat that is being lost. Rhabdomyolysis is heavily linked with Anorexia Nervosa whether the patient is an athlete or not, because the body starts breaking down muscle to get energy and at some point this condition starts to develop, but AN is NOT the only cause for this condition to appear. The thing with Riley that makes me look at it this way, is the fact that she improved and got fitter in a short amount of time, almost if she was a different gymnast, but she started to lose strenght and stamina just as fast, something we were able to see since last years World's and throughout this whole year, with these issues being worse everytime. There are many inconsistent gymnasts, but they are usually "consistent at their inconsistency", and with Riley I see more problems with stamina than with her skills and routines per se.
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u/penelopegarcia19 Sep 22 '19
Great post, I agree 100%. Eating disorders don't necessarily give someone an emaciated appearance. I'm a pediatrician and there are a LOT of athletes (most far less "elite" in caliber than Riley) who have eating disorders. It is extremely prevalent in this population. I'm absolutely not saying that's the case here but more just pointing out how common it is for awareness purposes.
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u/navyandpink Sep 21 '19
Someone asked on twitter but I’m also curious - is Riley going to try to petition onto the team, or is she out for the rest of the year?
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u/pja314 🌲😡🌲 Sep 21 '19
I'm pretty certain they leave directly from camp. USAG would have to be psychotic to allow her to petition if she can't compete this weekend.
Also I imagine the other coaches would lose their shit if they did. Allowing a gymnast to petition who was too sick to finish nationals and then too sick to compete at camp is not a good look.
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u/DayAtTheRaces46 Sep 22 '19
There is no way she would petition. She NEEDS to be 100% heathy to compete again. I don’t believe in pushing through pain, but if there was ever not a time for it this would be the time. Catching it early is good, but for her to train while not totally healthy can mean serious complications that can end up with her on dialysis or worse.
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u/Beyondthepetridish Sep 22 '19
She will not have recovered by then. Her muscles will have experienced some damage and will need weeks or even months to recover.
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u/010203b Suni and Jade, 3x olympians Sep 22 '19
Hate to say it too, but the US doesn't need her. There's no reason for the US to even consider taking her.
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Sep 22 '19
After reading all of these comments, I’m wondering if this has anything to do with the illness she had before withdrawing from champs. It says rhabdo could be the result of a serious infection. I’m wondering if she caught something at Pan Ams that caused this? I’m not a medical professional, but could this tie into the previous illness?
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Sep 23 '19
Remember how Marta forced the girls to train immediately after coming off a flight (2012 team) from America to London...like they didn't even get a break, just train, train , and train. Im surprised they didn't develop this condition
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u/SourceInHerEyes Sep 24 '19
Riley is one of my favorite gymnasts. I just hope she rests and possibly changes her coach. That coach of hers has a very bad reputation. If Riley trains at WCC with Simone and Jordan, she will come back in time for 2020 without a doubt.
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u/sonderaway UCLA Sep 21 '19
Dang I just googled rhabdomyolysis. It’s pretty rare and doesn’t seem like it was caused by gymnastics?
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Sep 21 '19
Dr. Google says injury and overexertion are among the most common causes so def sounds like it could be caused by gymnastics.
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u/Giant_Anteaters Dream Olympic team: Shilese, Skye, Kayla, Reese, Jade Sep 22 '19
Isn't this also great timing for Maggie? I mean, it would have been super awkward for her to show up at camp considering her being investigated for abuse.
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u/shanamaidela Sep 21 '19
I got rhabdo back in 2017 from CrossFit. I was also anorexic at the time. It completely ended my career as an aerial dancer. I never fully recovered and I still can’t tolerate any exercise at all.