Soccer Legend Brandi Chastain To Donate Brain For Concussion Research
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- She gave us one of the most indelible moments in American sports history, and now Brandi Chastain is doing something even greater – donating her brain for concussion research.
CBS News reports the 47-year-old soccer star will donate her brain to the VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank upon her death. The brain bank is a joint project with the Veterans Affairs Department and Boston University School of Medicine.
"It is really about: How I can help impact soccer beyond scoring a goal in 1999 in the World Cup final," Chastain told The Associated Press, referencing the penalty click that clinched the World Cup title for the United States. "Can I do something more to leave soccer in a better place than it was when I began this wonderful journey with this game."
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, cases have come to the forefront, especially in football. Last year, researchers with Veterans Affairs and Boston University found CTE in the brains of 87 of 91 former NFL players they tested – a whopping 96 percent. CTE is a degenerative head condition caused by repeated blows to the head.
"We currently know so little about how gender influences outcome over trauma," Dr. Anne McKee, director of the brain bank program, told CBS News. "Her pledge marks an important step to expand our knowledge in this critical area."
Chastain suspects that she had at least a couple of concussions during her playing career.
"You just shook it off back then," she told the AP.
The sport has recently addressed concussions as the U.S. Soccer Federation banned headers for kids 10 and under. CBS News reports a study found more than one in four concussions happened when players were trying to head a ball and another study revealed that girls' soccer had the second highest incident rate of concussions.
Chastain has partnered with the Concussion Legacy Foundation's Safer Soccer Initiative to call on coaches to eliminate headers for players under the age of 14.
"It's been a long journey about education for me," she told the AP. "I've been involved in sports for a long time, only up until recently, have people been talking about concussions, and then concussions specifically related to soccer. It's been mostly a football problem or a football issue, but it's not."
Chastain was part of the U.S. national team from 1988-2004 and won two World Cups.
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