Friday 4 March 2016 10:09, UK
Brandi Chastain, whose penalty kick won the 1999 Women's World Cup title for the USA, is to donate her brain for concussion research.
Now a mother and youth coach living in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chastain announced on Thursday that, after her death, her brain will go to the Massachusetts-based Concussion Legacy Foundation's Brain Bank, a joint project with the Department of Veterans Affairs 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," she said. "Can I do something more to leave soccer in a better place than it was when I began this wonderful journey with this game?"
Researchers are studying the postmortem human brain and spinal cord tissue in the hope of diagnosing and treating chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative condition caused by a blow or blows to the head.
The research team last month announced it had found signs of CTE in the brain of former Oakland Raiders quarterback and NFL MVP Ken Stabler.
But only seven of the 307 brains it has in the bank are from women and none of those has been found to have CTE.
In Chastain's playing days, there wasn't the knowledge about concussions that there is today.
"You just shook it off back then," she said.
"Having played soccer since I was little, I can't even attempt a guess at how many times I've headed the ball," added Chastain, a veteran of 192 internationals between 1988 and 2004. "It's a significant number.
"It's scary to think about all the heading and potential concussions that were never diagnosed in my life, but it's better to know."
Chastain hopes she'll inspire other female athletes to pledge their brains to science. Fellow former national team player Cindy Parlow Cone and decorated swimmer Jenny Thompson have also done so.
In December, the US Soccer Federation announced a ban on headers for children aged 10 and under as part of a new safety drive aimed at eliminating concussions and other injuries.
The new safety guidelines also limit the amount of headers in practice for players aged 11-13 to no more than 30 minutes a week with only 15-20 headers per player and an emphasis on technique to try to avoid injury.
Chastain has been an advocate of Safer Soccer, the campaign which aims to halt the introduction of headers in youth soccer until high school.
When Chastain told her nine-year-old son about her donating her brain, she said: "Well, I won't need it anymore, so I might as well put it to good use."
