The CTE sports wall of denial is crumbling
Leading neurologist's actions in the spotlight, PLUS: A busy The Week That Was and Weekend That Will Be.
This was a very, very bad week for the branches of Big Sport that have spent years trying to downplay and in some cases even deny the links between chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and the head trauma received while playing their games.
The guiding light of this movement, Paul McCrory, an Australian consultant neurologist and former AFL team doctor who is the lead author for the influential Concussion in Sport Group (CISG), has been caught plagiarising and also stands accused of “misrepresenting” CTE research to minimise the links between the disease and sport.
It has sent shockwaves through the sporting medical science community.
One source said their email inbox and DMs had gone crazy since the news broke. The source believes the inference “misrepresentation” means all McCrory’s papers and data need to be investigated.
Chris Nowinski, founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, was damning in his assessment, telling The Bounce: “The Concussion in Sport Group, funded by professional sports organisations and controlled by Paul McCrory, has inappropriately represented and minimised the evidence showing CTE is caused by repeated head impacts.
“Now that McCrory has had at least one article retracted for ‘unlawful and indefensible breach of copyright’, and it has also been shown that in other writings he has frequently misrepresented prior CTE studies in ways that minimise the risk, I cannot imagine a world in which the CISG is allowed to continue to comment on the important matter of CTE scholarship, unless the entire operation is corrupt.”
World Rugby is one of the funders and principal signatories to the CISG, which shapes concussion policy across elite and grassroots sport.
The drama started when McCrory made an appearance in Retraction Watch, after publishing an article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that borrowed liberally (more than 50 percent) from a previous article by Dr Steve Haake.
This was picked up by Australian media ($) and mushroomed spectacularly. He was accused of “inventing research” and misrepresenting others’ work to serve his own (and by extension, that of Big Sport’s) needs.
The condemnation has been swift from home and away, including this measured but pointed tweet by AUT’s Professor Patria Hume.
Perhaps the biggest splash was made by Stephen Casper, a historian of neurology, who pointed out that McCrory has form for making mistakes of interpretation, citing an example in the fineprint before saying: “Because McCrory has made himself so central and so important in brain injury research in the last decades it seems important to flag his worrying tendency to inexplicably misrepresent the work of others.”
With the evisceration of McCrory’s reputation, the “academic” edifice that has prevented stronger stated links between sports injuries and brain disease could crumble away. It is not a stretch to say this could be the domino that leads to billions of dollars being paid out in class action suits, such as the one being taken against World Rugby, the RFU and Welsh rugby by a group of former players including ex-All Black Carl Hayman.
The Australian’s influence in the sports concussion realm cannot be understated.
McCrory’s bio on neurologynetwork.com.au states: “He is one of the few sports neurologists in the world with dual specialist qualifications both as a neurologist and as a sport and exercise physician and is recognised as a global leader in the field of sports concussion and CTE.”
It lists the organisations he has consulted on medical policy for, including: the International Olympic Committee, Fifa, World Rugby, multiple horse racing boards, the NRL, the AFL and the International Ice Hockey Federation.
He has become the go-to neurologist for sports administrations.
Most far-reaching of all his positions is he serves as chairman and lead author of the International Concussion in Sport Consensus Group (CISG). The outcome papers for these are among the most highly cited papers in sports medicine, much to the chagrin of CTE researchers who believe they soft-pedal the risks of repetitive head injuries.
On a trip to Boston University in 2018 to talk to the scientists behind the waves of evidence linking CTE and sports head injuries, McCrory’s name was bandied about regularly and with disdain.
Dr Bob Cantu, known by some as the godfather of concussion, told me: “I’ve been very upset with [CISG’s] statements as regards to CTE and I’ve let them know that. I disagree with them writing there’s no causal link established between repetitive head injury and CTE… [but] I could not get it through the powers that be, Paul McCrory and Willem Meeuwisse. They are the two major drivers and that organisation.”
Dr Bob Stern, a neuropsychologist and clinician who put together Boston University’s grant applications, said McCrory was one of “four guys out there saying really ridiculous stuff” who haven’t “done a single research study but they've written 12 review papers or policy statements that have focused on CTE and all are negative.”
McCrory has yet to comment on any of the accusations but his reputational fall has been precipitous.
Concussion awareness campaigners hope it is just the start.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
The trinkets can go on the mantelpiece now. Valerie Adams has retired having won two Olympic gold medals, a silver and a bronze across five Games.
She has run the full gamut, from being callow youth in Athens to dominant in Beijing, cheated in London (though soon rectified), pipped at the post in Rio and hanging on to the young guns as a proud mum in Tokyo.
The most important thing she did for sport, however, was to open up an athletics pathway for other prodigiously talented Pasifika girls. Her legacy, I hope, will be longstanding and profound in this regard.
Here is Stuff’s comprehensive summation of her announcement and her immediate future. The best piece on her retirement, however, was by friend and biographer Phil Gifford in the NZ Herald. It’s behind the paywall and many of you have let me know you’d rather I didn’t link to NZH paywalled pieces, but here’s just a part of what Gifford wrote.
Picture a 13-year-old kid, who walks the playground in Mangere in South Auckland with stooped shoulders and her head down, trying to look shorter because she's already 6 feet 3 inches tall. Some of the meaner kids call her Bigfoot.
A teacher at her high school, Southern Cross Campus, tells her she has to compete in the athletics sports day coming up. Valerie plays basketball, but she's never been involved in track and field. She asks what she can do. The teacher says she should throw the shot.
On the day of the school champs, in bare feet and footy shorts, Valerie picks up a shot for the first time in her life. She breaks the school senior record by a couple of metres. Two weeks later at the Counties-Manukau championship, still in bare feet, she breaks the area senior record.
Only six months after she's first thrown the shot, having just turned 14, Valerie's on a plane getting ready to fly to Poland for the world under-18 championships, the only Polynesian in the squad. "My Mum had bought me Big 'Uns chips, and a big bottle of a budget brand fizzy drink. I felt like the most spoilt kid in the world." By the time she's 16, she's the world under-18 champion.
Russian and Belarusian athletes have been banned from competing at the Winter Paralympics that start in China this weekend.
The decision affected 83 athletes (71 from Russia) and followed boycott threats from a number of other countries that would have affected the viability of the Games.
“We are currently in work to establish our legal position to file lawsuits on the protection of our athletes’ rights, against the discrimination of athletes based on their ethnicity and the use of sports as a tool of a political pressure,” Russian agency TASS quoted sports minister Oleg Matytsin as saying.
“Today’s decision... to bar our team is a blatant violation of athletes’ rights and a manipulation of the Olympic Charter and human lives’ values in pursuit of political goals,” he added.
IPC president Andrews Parsons said the atmosphere in the Games Village was not pleasant and had become untenable.
In other Russia-related news, Roman Abramovic has put Chelsea up for sale, while Everton have suspended all links with Alisher Usmanov1.
This piece by Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post, reproduced in Stuff, reiterates why sporting sanctions will prove effective.
[Putin’s] brand of shirtless belligerent patriotism – his macho nationalism – has been a long con, and it's no small thing to knock him off medal podiums and expose the lifts in his shoes, or to rip off his judo belt and show the softening of his belly and, in turn, weaken his influence.
“This could have a tremendous impact on the minds of many Russians,” says Garry Kasparov, the former chess world champion turned activist.
It was an act of “moral capitulation” to award Putin prestige via sports events in the first place. It stemmed from a fundamental misconception that this odious strongman trifled with events such as the World Cup and the Olympics because he wished to play nice with the international audience and had a diplomatic side. Wrong.
Putin's games always have been about his dead-serious, murderous consolidation of power at home. They are tools to awe and blinker, to intimidate and cow, with displays of superiority…
“Most ordinary Russians have a very limited and distorted picture of what's happening in Ukraine,” Kasparov says. “But things like Fifa banning Russia will make them look around.”
Banking sanctions are one kind of check, but there is deep emotion in a ban from the world's largest arenas that will reach not just oligarchs but ordinary people as a statement of universally revolted sensibilities. It takes a special rage to refuse to play with someone at all.
Rod Marsh died today after suffering a heart attack last week.
The legendary wicketkeeper played the game hard but fair. He was a guy Greg Chappell described as someone you loved having on your side but hated playing against.
He’ll be remembered here as the guy who tried (admittedly not very hard, but tried nonetheless), to talk Chappell and younger brother Trevor out of delivering the underarm all those years ago at the MCG.
He was 74.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
It’s already started, with the White Ferns Taking on the West Indies in the opening match of the women's World Cup. You might already know the result by the time you read this so what I’m about to say might be redundant, but these are the matches the Ferns must win and win well.
They go into the tournament on a good run having destroyed Australia by nine wickets in a 15-a-side warm-up, with Sophie Devine returning to form in the 50-over format with a big hundred.
New Zealand’s blueprint is pretty simple: bludgeon attacks with a high-powered top four including Devine, Suzie Bates, the brilliant Amelia Kerr and Amy Satterthwaite; and restrict the opposition with the ball.
Where they’ve fallen over in the past is when they need match-winning contributions outside that top four but the recent India series saw important contributions down the order.
This is a massive month for women’s cricket in New Zealand and a massive 18 months for women’s sport as a whole, as highlighted in this piece.
There’s a cracking game tomorrow, too.
New Zealand v West Indies, Mt Maunganui, in progress, Sky Sport 2
Australia v England, Hamilton, tomorrow 2pm, Sky Sport 2
I’m looking forward to Moana Pasifika making their long-awaited Super Rugby debut, but with some trepidation. The chances are they were going to struggle in their debut season with a roster made up of veterans who are perhaps past their peak and inexperienced players, but giving the Crusaders a two week start due to covid means that they are facing long odds.
I’m not a fan of rugby in February and March as a rule, but last week’s classic between the Hurricanes and Blues has dragged me in momentarily.
Moana Pasifika v Crusaders, Dunedin, tonight 7.05pm, Sky Sport 1
Blues v Chiefs, Auckland, tomorrow 4.35pm, Sky Sport 1
Basketball fans curious to see how well-travelled superstar James Harden and Joel Embiid mesh with the 76ers should tune in to this Eastern Conference heavyweight showdown.
Philadelphia 76ers v Cleveland Cavaliers, Philadelphia, tomorrow 1pm, Spark Sport
It’s Manchester derby time and an awful spot for United fans to be in. Lose and they help crosstown rivals City to bolster their title hopes; win or draw and they help hated rivals Liverpool. Hobson’s choice.
Manchester City v Manchester United, Etihad Stadium, Monday 5.20am, Spark Sport
Some of the athletics has been outstanding this season, if a bit under the radar. Give it a squizz this weekend.
NZ Track and field champs, Hastings, today-Sunday, Sky Sport Next
The Supercars have snuck up on me. Love the tin-tops and love watching Shane van Gisbergen bully the Australians.
Supercars Race 1, Sydney, tomorrow 8.50pm, Sky Sport 5
On Wednesday I highlighted how Russian oligarchs had invested in sport to legitimise their wealth and referenced Usmanov’s Arsenal link. While the point was to note the original investments that enabled them to do this it wasn’t clearly explained and a reader rightly pointed out that Usmanov’s football interests lay on Merseyside now, north London.