Olympic Gold Medalist, World Cup Champ says she was forced to retire due to concussion injuries

“It’s been over a decade since my last concussion and I’m still suffering from the effect of that,” said Cindy Parlow Cone. She is a former World Cup champion with the US women’s soccer team and an Olympic gold medalist, but she was forced to end her career early due to too many concussions on the field.

In 2001, she went up for a header and banged heads with a teammate. She was unconscious even before she landed. “In that instant, my life changed.” — Cindy Parlow Cone told CNN

She stayed in the game despite feeling tingly in her fingers and even headed the ball again later. It was first diagnosed concussion. In the 2003 World Cup, she had another collision and blacked out again. Then in 2004, she says she reached down to adjust her cleats and she had trouble getting her fingers to work properly. The next thing she remembers is being inside an MRI. She’d had a mini-stroke.

“My concussion symptoms were just continuing to get worse, were affecting my daily life, affecting my training, affecting my performance. I never fully recovered from that concussion. I still have the exact same symptoms.”

She retired in 2006, although she still coaches. She works on a campaign called Safer Soccer, an initiative of the Concussions Legacy Foundation.

“The recovery from them is not easy. I’m actually still recovering,” she said.