We often see elite sport as the pinnacle of human performance. With it comes a perception that an athlete cannot be too dedicated in their pursuit of glory, that practice makes perfect. We think of their resilience or stoicism in the same way. A ‘we go again’ philosophy many champions possess.
Catlin referred to this herself in a blog post for the website VeloNews, published in late February 2019, shortly before her death.
She wrote: “As athletes, we are all socially programmed to be stoic with our pain, to bear our burdens and not complain, even when such stoicism reaches the point of stupidity and those burdens begin to damage us. These are hard habits to break.
“The truth is that most of the time, I don’t make everything work. It’s like juggling with knives, but I really am dropping a lot of them. It’s just that most of them hit the floor and not me.”
Brain injury remains poorly understood in the sporting world. Only in recent years has awareness begun to grow around the degenerative condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and its links with repeated blows to the head, and/or concussion.
The UK charity Headway has played a major role in developing interventions to mitigate against risks facing athletes, while also campaigning for wider understanding of post-concussion syndrome, too.
Because while CTE tends to develop later in life, with symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s disease and can currently only be fully diagnosed post-mortem, PCS is experienced in the immediate weeks or months after a concussion.
A key phrase from Headway’s campaign work is: ‘If in doubt, sit it out.’ The reality of the cycling world can often be found a long way from that message.
In road cycling, a rider must quickly get back on their bike following a crash to avoid losing touch with the peloton and missing a time limit, causing elimination.
Last year’s men’s road cycling season saw some high-profile instances of concussion – one during each of the three Grand Tour races. The most concerning came at the 2020 Tour de France, in which Frenchman Romain Bardet crashed on stage 13.
He was contesting the lead of the race, but after crashing was clearly disorientated when he was lifted on to his feet, and his legs gave way and he collapsed. Within a minute he was back on his bike. He finished the 192km stage before it was revealed he not only had concussion, but had suffered a brain haemorrhage.
Several of Catlin’s USA Cycling counterparts have highlighted their concerns over concussions they suffered during their careers on the track, including 2020 world time trial champion Chloe Dygert and US time trial champion Carmen Small, who says her career was eventually ended by it.
“All athletes want to keep pushing when they should probably stop,” Small has said. “I still have headaches. I was never diagnosed, but I remember being out of it for four days in a dark room and having vertigo for six weeks.”
Since Catlin’s death, USA Cycling has launched a wellbeing programme and “multiple strategic initiatives aimed at changing the narrative around mental health”.