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Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE, has largely been connected with men who played American football. But it's not just a men's disease.
Scientists at the Australian Sports Brain Bank announced Monday that Heather Anderson, a former Australian rules football player, has become the first professional female athlete to be diagnosed with CTE, a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated traumatic brain injuries.
Anderson's family donated her brain to ASBB after she took her own life in 2022 at the age of 28. She played contact sports (Aussie Rules and rugby league) pretty much her entire life, and after years in youth leagues she was drafted into the women's Australian Football League in 2016. Numerous injuries — including one confirmed concussion that caused her to wear a helmet — led to her retirement after just one season. She later became an army medic.
Athletes in high-contact sports like American and Australian football, hockey, rugby, boxing and MMA are particularly at risk of developing CTE. But due to the small number of high-contact professional sports for women and the worldwide publicity of the NFL's CTE scandal, the focus of CTE has largely been on men. But according to ASBB director Michael Buckland, CTE doesn't look any different in a woman's brain than it does in a man's.
“There were multiple CTE lesions as well as abnormalities nearly everywhere I looked in her cortex. It was indistinguishable from the dozens of male cases I’ve seen,” Buckland said.
Chris Nowinski, CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, told Al-Jazeera that Anderson’s “landmark” diagnosis should be a “wake-up call for women’s sports.”
“We can prevent CTE by preventing repeated impacts to the head, and we must begin a dialogue with leaders in women’s sports today so we can save future generations of female athletes from suffering,” Nowinski said via ESPN.
Daniel Weinman was crowned winner of the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event on Monday, taking home a record breaking $12.1 million in winnings. Weinman had to outlast the other 10,043 entrants to take home the prize and get his hands on his share of live poker’s largest ever prize pool – a staggering $93,399,900. As well as taking home the prize money, 35-year-old Weinman also got his hands on the WSOP Main Event bracelet. The huge bracelet contains 500 grams of 10-karat yellow gold, as well as 2,352 various precious gemstones.
Daniel Weinman won the World Series of Poker's main event world championship on Monday in Las Vegas, earning $12.1 million along the way. Playing in the tournament for a 16th year, Weinman was tops in a deep pool of 10,043 players vying for $93.39 million. His victory came after just 164 hands at the final table. "I was honestly on the fence about even coming back and playing this tournament," the 35-year-old Atlanta native told reporters afterward. Weinman's final table featured Jan-Peter Jachtmann, who landed in fourth place and took home $3 million, as well as Toby Lewis, who finished seventh and secured $1.42 million. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the main event's entry pool far outpaced the previous record of 8,773 set in 2006. "I've always kind of felt that poker was kind of going in a dying direction, but to see the numbers at the World Series this year has been incredible," Weinman said. "And to win this main event, it doesn't feel real. I mean, [there's] so much luck in a poker tournament. I thought I played very well." Steven Jones finished second, securing $6.5 million. And Adam Walton settled for third and a $4 million prize.
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