Former Olympian Angela Ruggiero, who won medals as part of the U.S. women’s hockey team over three winter Games, pledged to donate her brain for concussion research, it was announced by the Concussion Legacy Foundation.
Ruggiero is a four-time Olympian who participated as recently as 2010 and has been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Undoubtedly she took a few hits in her playing career, and it’s what Ruggiero is doing now that could prove even more useful in a study of her brain.
Aside from serving in two capacities at the International Olympic Committee’s highest levels, Ruggiero also founded and is the CEO of Sports Innovation Lab. The lab serves as a hub for businesses entering or looking to get ahead in the sports tech industry, and Ruggiero guides the strategy of the lab’s member sports organizations. Among those organizations? The NBA, Google, the Canadian Olympic Committee, MIT Sports Lab, and Blue Star Sports.
The Sports Innovation Lab also provides a research engine that quantifies loads of data using machine learning, its website says.
As her already impressive resume grows, Ruggiero’s brain pledge could result in findings that extend far beyond concussion and CTE research. But the first reason she gave for the pledge is to get more female brains in the mix.
“As a woman, I know a lot of studies skew towards male subjects, so it’s important to have more female brains to study,” she said in a statement. “I felt it was important for me to put my foot forward and pledge my brain to help this great cause and to learn more about the effects of sports. If it can help future generations, it’s worth it to me. I hope my actions can inspire others to do the same, specifically other athletes and specifically female athletes because any study has to have a balanced representation of both genders.”
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Ruggiero’s pledge comes as part of the Concussion Legacy Foundation’s Pledge Month, which will run throughout February as a means to encourage people to pledge their brains to research, whether for control purposes or because those brains have been subjected to trauma in a sports or military context, according to the announcement.
Along with Ruggiero, two other Olympians — including one who is currently competing in PyeongChang — have pledged their brains: Elana Meyers Taylor, who could win a gold medal in bobsled, and former Canadian hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser.
“We are honored to have these two Olympic superstars take the #MyLegacyPledge, and are excited to root for Elana Meyers Taylor as she goes for gold,” Chris Nowinski, the co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, said in a statement. “We appreciate their leadership and call to action to help us increase the number of female brains, as well as controls, in the brain bank in 2018.”