If your children’s grandchildren have an opportunity to play the game of soccer without fear of concussion, you might just have Brandi Chastain to thank.

 

Chastain may be best remembered to our generation as the player for Team USA whose penalty kick gave the U.S. the 1999 Women’s World Cup. In the future, she may be remembered as the player who helped keep our youngsters safe when they play sports. 

 

Chastain, you see, announced last week that she is donating her brain to science—specifically, to the Massachusetts-based Concussion Legacy Foundation. Researchers there are studying the postmortem human brain and spinal cord tissue in hopes of diagnosing and treating chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE, caused by repeated blows to the head, has been found in the brains of countless football players. But as of now, only seven of the 300+ brains donated for research are from women. And none of them has shown signs of CTE.

 

So does that mean that it’s safer for women to play a sport like soccer that does result in concussions? We don’t know that yet. A study published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine in 2012 showed that, not surprisingly, football had the greatest incidents of concussions among high school athletes. Girls' soccer was second. In fact, another study showed one in four concussions happened when players tried to head the ball—a common soccer move. 

 

With more girls playing youth soccer up through the high school and even college level, the chances of suffering a concussion increase. Brandi Chastain’s brave decision to donate her brain for research just may help make soccer, and other sports, safer for our youngsters to play.