A degenerative brain disease linked to repeated blows to the head has been found in a US semi-professional soccer player who died in April last year, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
Researchers at Boston University and VA Boston Healthcare System, who have diagnosed many cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), said 29-year-old Patrick Grange showed damage on a level usually found in American football players.
“He had very extensive frontal lobe damage,” said neuropathologist Ann McKee, who examined Grange’s brain. “We have seen other athletes in their 20s with this level of pathology, but they have usually been [American] football players.”
Researchers also found severe CTE signs in the shriveled and deteriorated brain of a 77-year-old former rugby union player from Australia, Barry “Tizza” Taylor, although that was more expected given the collision-filled nature of the sport.
Grange’s parents told the Times that their son took pride in his skills at heading the ball before his death, which came as a result of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known in the US as Lou Gehrig’s disease after the famed 1930s New York Yankees baseball star who died of the disease in 1941.
Repeated blows to the head in boxing and American football have caused damage similar to that found in Grange, but his repeated heading of the ball cannot conclusively be linked to his brain’s condition, McKee said.
“We can’t say for certain that heading the ball caused his condition in this case, but it is noteworthy that he was a frequent header of the ball and he did develop this disease,” she said. “I’m not sure we can take it any further than that.”
Aussie Taylor played rugby union for 19 years, including 235 games for Manly, but near the end of his life had severe memory loss.
“I took him for a walk and I was getting a lot of monosyllabic answers,” Taylor’s son Steven said. “I said: ‘What’s your name, mate?’ He looked at me and just shrugged his shoulders. That’s the point he got to. He didn’t even known who he was... It was a great waste, a great shame, knowing that the last 20 years did not have to be like this.”
Symptoms of CTE include depression, memory loss, progressive dementia and impulse control disorders. The findings are part of an updated version of a 2012 documentary entitled Head Games: The Global Concussion Crisis.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but