Brandi Chastain donates brain to CTE research

It’s one thing to contribute to your sport athletically, but for an icon of a sport to contribute through research is truly a commendable thing

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, has been the common buzz in the NFL and soccer world as of lately. To many parents, the idea of this degenerative brain disease is scary and dictates a lot of decisions, now, when it comes to allowing their children to play physical, contact sports. Many have begun extensive research and have taken strides to preventing what causes the injuries that lead to this very scary disease.

One of the most iconic moments in soccer and women’s sports in general came in 1999 when Brandi Chastain was immortalized through a simple photograph as she scored the winning shootout goal during the Women’s World Cup finale against China, fell to her knees on the ground, ripped her jersey off, and clenched her fists in pure joy.

The U.S. soccer legend and icon has decided to use her head for the sake of soccer and science in vowing to donate her brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation and researchers at Boston University for much-needed research into CTE.

In case you haven’t heard about it or have and don’t know much about it, CTE is found in people who have sustained multiple head injuries (such as concussions). This progressive degenerative disease includes the build-up of an abnormal protein in the brain called “tau” which leads to memory loss, confusion, impulse control problems, impaired judgment, aggression, depression, Alzheimer’s, and progressive dementia. Symptoms of CTE doesn’t typically show up right away, in fact, they have been known to show up decades after the last traumatic injury to the brain.

The disease has been studied for decades and still has a significant amount of research to be done on it, so Chastain’s promise to donate her brain will likely be something that truly makes growth in a positive direction. The United States soccer star can recall many times she headed the ball throughout her 40 years of playing the sport, but never had an official diagnosis of a concussion while playing: “I never had an official diagnosis of a concussion in my career,” Chastain said in a report with Christine Brennan of USA Today, “but as you grow older, you sometimes say, gosh, am I losing my memory or did I used to forget when I went into a room what I went in there for? Could this be the start of something?”

The now 47-year-old retired athlete, mom, wife, coach, and advocate recalled two incidents in college at California and Santa Clara where she received a concussion and “saw stars” but went right back into the game. She said she “did what we all used to do and shook it off,” never shying away from the learned technique of heading the ball during her career. Currently, Chastain suffers no symptoms from the multiple undiagnosed concussions during her time playing the sport and has no signs of degenerative brain disease, however she does recognize that these symptoms can come later in life.

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In an interview with John Branch of New York Times, Chastain touches on the fact that the future of her brain and possible symptom to come does concern her at times; “I do wonder about the ramifications over the next 20 years when I should be fully functioning and still doing things I like or want to do,” later she adds that she tries to not focus on or worry about it because of the simple fact that what’s done is done and at this point she can’t change the outcome.

A 2013 study found that soccer players who regularly head the ball had more brain abnormalities than players who didn’t. These abnormalities resembled those abnormalities seen in people who suffered from concussions. The very same study found that the average soccer player typically will head the ball up to 12 times in a single game with a ball that was travelling 50 mph or faster; players are known to head the ball as little as 30 times in each practice. Later, a 2015 study took 100 high schools and found that females were more than 1.5 times more likely to experience a concussion than a male.

As of right now, Chastain is one of seven women who have decided to donate their brain to the researchers at Boston University. Seven out of 307 brains belong to women and while CTE has been found in a small number of women who have suffered traumatic brain injuries, no female athletes have been reported as having the disease. “A question I have is, do men’s and women’s brains look and respond differently?” Chastain told USA Today. “Why are ACL injuries more common in girls and women than boys and men? Could that also be true with concussions?

And if true, what can we do differently?” Another important area on the gender issue of this for Chastain includes the fact that women put just as much into their sport for next to nothing while men are signing million dollar decade long contracts. Many of these athletes, like those in the NFL, are being looked at as far as their safety goes, but for the women there are few who are speaking up and ask Chastain says asks “What’s it [head injuries] doing to them?”

Chastain now coaches her 9-year-old son’s team, assists the varsity team at Bellarmine, coaches at her alma mater Santa Clara University alongside her husband, and advocates for the Safer Soccer campaign which is aimed at eliminating heading in youth soccer- specifically under the age of 14. In November of 2015, U.S. soccer prohibited headers for u-11 players. Four years ago, Chastain told CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta that she aims to teach all of her athletes to avoid concussions by using spatial awareness: “Part of it for me is not so much about hitting the ball. It’s more about how fast is an opponent coming, where is your body in space? How do you protect yourself?”

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The 2016 U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame class nominee is known to many as “one of the 99ers”; the woman who whipped her jersey off at the 1999 Women’s World Cup after defeating China, but now Chastain very well might be contributing one of the most important things that any athlete in the end can contribute to their sport. She says that her penalty kick from 1999 is definitely at the top of the list of things that she wants to be remembered for, “but not as the most important thing.” Chastain will obviously go down in the history of women’s sports as a huge impact for the growth of women’s soccer, but now she will be making an even bigger contribution that can impact an even greater audience.