Traumatic brain injuries are becoming an increasingly heated topic of discussion in sports the past few years, along with initiatives changing the way the are handled in youth sports, revisiting how a football helmet is designed for impact and how brain trauma results in long term effects in professional athletes.
image source from NYPL
In a documentary that airs this week on HBO, the crash reel focuses on snowboarder kevin pierce and his journey from the building of his career to a shot in the 2009 olympics, to the accident itself, followed by the long recovery and acceptance that the person he woke up as was no longer the person he used to be.
Playing any sport has its risks. a traumatic brain injury, no matter how severe, is a permanent injury. It is like no injury your body will ever sustain. When I fell during a practice back in 2012, I laid on the ground in a daze. It wasn’t until the next morning that I realized i had a concussion. The weeks that followed were more than frustrating. Not only did I have to stop skating, I had to stop everything in my life. my recovery was slow, taking several months before I could even focus on a single person talking in a crowded room. As an athlete all you can think about after an injury is when you can return to it. For kevin, like any athlete with a dream to be the best, his snowboarding days were far from over. But his determination to get back might overlook the harsh reality that he shouldn’t return to the slopes ever again. because if he did, just one more fall could mean death.
The crash reel airs this week on HBO the 17, 18, 21 and 23rd. for the full listing of times and dates go here.