{"id":24977,"date":"2024-01-16T15:56:10","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T15:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test11.f5test.in.ua\/personal-stories\/my-legacy-brandi-chastain\/"},"modified":"2024-09-17T14:38:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T14:38:29","slug":"my-legacy-brandi-chastain","status":"publish","type":"stories","link":"https:\/\/concussionandcte.org\/en-ca\/personal-stories\/inspiring-stories\/my-legacy-brandi-chastain\/","title":{"rendered":"My Legacy: Brandi Chastain Pledges Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Posted: March 3, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of youth, high school and college soccer careers were inspired by Chastain\u2019s left-footed boot in 1999. A soccer lifer, she continues to be involved with and give back to the sport. Chastain is a Volunteer Assistant Coach at her alma mater, Santa Clara University, and is a vocal advocate for\u00a0Safer Soccer<\/a>, the campaign that encourages delaying the introduction of headers in youth soccer until high school.<\/p>\n

The soccer icon isn\u2019t stopping there, however. Chastain has pledged her brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation as part of\u00a0My Legacy. During an age in which we\u2019re seeing an ever-increasing need to prevent, manage and treat\u00a0concussions<\/a>\u00a0and brain damage from soccer, one of the sport\u2019s biggest legends is giving all she can to help make the sport safer for future generations.<\/p>\n

Why are you donating your brain to the Concussion Legacy Foundation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With more information, the greater public can make better choices. I won\u2019t be witness to the results when I donate my brain, and I hope that day is a long way from today, but I\u2019m hoping that my donation helps change things for the positive. I hope my experience in soccer and what I am able to give back helps put soccer in a better place than it was when I started.<\/p>\n

Having played soccer since I was little, I can\u2019t even attempt a guess at how many times I\u2019ve headed the ball. It\u2019s a significant number. It\u2019s scary to think about all the heading and potential concussions that were never diagnosed in my life, but it\u2019s better to know.<\/p>\n

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How do you envision this research being used and making a difference for future generations?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Making a pledge like this, ultimately I\u2019m thinking about the players. How do we evaluate what happened in my brain \u2013 when I started doing things like repetitive heading \u2013 and then take those results to improve the way we coach our young players? Can what we learn help change rules even more? Maybe by the time they study my brain, we\u2019ll have other testing for things that aren\u2019t even in our vision at this time. To move forward, you have to examine what\u2019s happened in the past and see how we can change things for the future.<\/p>\n

What do you want your legacy to be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My experiences through sports have all been amazing, and I\u2019m so grateful that I lived in a community that supported me participating. Because of my experiences, I have an opportunity to influence other coaches, players, and parents. Through working with Chris Nowinski and Dr. Robert Cantu I\u2019ve learned a lot about the health and wellness of our athletes in a way that I never thought about before. We\u2019ve asked questions that no one ever posed before. Because of these conversations and these interactions, as a parent I see my legacy changing from a soccer player to an athlete ambassador. I want to protect my kids \u2013 and it\u2019s not just my kids, but every kid who steps onto the soccer field. I want to protect them and make sure that they get to have the kinds of experiences I had through soccer, while being safer and cared for.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been very involved with the\u00a0Safer Soccer campaign<\/a>\u00a0to eliminate heading for kids under 14. That campaign saw a victory in November, with U.S. Soccer announcing its new rule prohibiting heading for players under 11 and limiting headers for players aged 11 to 13. What was your reaction to that news?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a positive step that there\u2019s been an amendment on the age, but there\u2019s still a long way to go to provide a safer soccer environment for our kids, and for all of our players. We\u2019d love U.S. Soccer to stand up and say, \u201911 is still too young. Let\u2019s protect these kids even longer.\u2019 And what we\u2019re pushing for doesn\u2019t just apply here in the U.S., it\u2019s really on a global scale. Soccer has a great influence on the world, and it has the opportunity to stand up and make a statement that as a unifying organization it wants to really make a difference in the lives of people, especially the youngest and most vulnerable people playing its sport.<\/p>\n

Is donating one\u2019s brain to research something that you\u2019d like to see catch on among other former athletes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is such a personal issue, but what I would encourage is that everybody who\u2019s had experience in sports should feel compelled to participate in helping make their sport better. If you have been a player who\u2019s had multiple concussions or repetitive heading, to me it makes sense to donate and to be a part of a solution.<\/p>\n

For so long, players with concussions have in many ways had to be in the dark on their own, dealing with symptoms, diminished capacity, or eventually experiencing the pain of having to step away from their sport. When you feel vulnerable and you feel like there are no answers, you feel alone. This is a chance to be empowered. By knowing that we\u2019re not alone, and by working together and getting more people to follow suit, maybe in the future, we have less reason to worry about concussions. Ultimately, that\u2019s where we want to get to. We\u2019d like to be out of the job of talking about this.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Pledge your brain to research<\/a><\/p>\n