Julie suffered 60 concussions during her sporting career. Now her brain has been permanently damaged

Julie Speight was 14 years old when she received her first racing bike.

It was a birthday gift from her parents that sparked a lifelong love affair with cycling, and a career that would leave her with 60 concussions.

“I think it took maybe two months and I was hooked. It was freedom. I can ride better than I can walk, because it feels like the wheels are a part of me,” Ms Speight said.

It was more than just a childhood passion. Ms Speight would go on to become a trailblazer for competitive women’s cycling in Australia. 

She made history in 1988, becoming Australia’s first female Olympic cyclist.

Two years later, she became the first Australian woman to win a sprint cycling medal at the Commonwealth Games when she claimed silver in the 1,000 metres match sprint.

“Without cycling, I really don’t know where I would be in life. It gave me so many friendships. Cycling taught me how to think, how to survive and how to be in the world,” she told 7.30.

But her passion has come at a painful price. 

Throughout her career, Ms Speight suffered more than 60 concussions – 14 were so severe, she was hospitalised. 

Ms Speight said during the 1980s and 1990s, there was a culture of ignoring concussion injuries because they were not thought to be a serious problem.

“The conversation was just, ‘Get back on the bike and keep racing’,” she said.

She retired from professional racing at the age of 32.

“I just didn’t want to hit my head anymore, and that’s the sad fact of it,” she said.

A mysterious brain injury

Now 54, Ms Speight said her health is deteriorating: she struggles with her balance, has memory problems and is suffering from debilitating migraines.

“It was probably about six years ago that I noticed I was falling over a lot. I was getting really anxious in supermarkets with the shelving,” she said.

Ms Speight is also losing her hearing in one ear — the ear itself works fine, but she said her brain struggles to process the sound and a hearing aid won’t fix the problem.

“It’s my brain not interpreting the sound correctly,” she said. 

Earlier this year, Ms Speight started seeing neurologist Dr Rowena Mobbs, an expert in concussion injuries from Macquarie University.

Dr Mobbs said she believes Julie could have the rare fatal brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. 

“We classify patients into possible or probable CTE. I think for Julie, given her testing results and the syndrome that she has, it may come into the probable category,” Dr Mobbs told 7.30.

The reason there is no “definite” category is because the disease can only be diagnosed after death, through analysis of brain tissue. 

The development of CTE is associated with repeated head trauma, like concussion. But little is known about how many knocks can cause it, or how hard those knocks really need to be. 

This is because CTE can also be caused by “subconcussive impacts”, which are smaller head knocks that don’t lead to a loss of consciousness but can still damage the brain over time.

“Subconcussion is when there are no symptoms at all from a head knock. Those little repetitive head knocks can add up,” Dr Mobbs said. 

Experts link CTE to young dementia

A new study from Dr Mobbs and researchers at Macquarie University has found young dementia could be the first sign of CTE, after examining the health of athletes from different sports with at least 10 years of head trauma.

The report, which is still being peer-reviewed, observed nearly a third of those athletes (28.6 per cent) were suffering from dementia before the age of 65.

This is in stark contrast to the 0.1 per cent of the Australian population with young-onset dementia.

It was also noted that a clear majority (78.5 per cent) were under the age of 65 yet reporting to a neurologist with concerns of reduced brain function.

For Ms Speight, the news that her symptoms could indicate she has CTE has not come as a surprise.

Women and children at increased risk of concussion

Over the past two decades, countless scientific papers about the long-term impact of concussion have been published, but very few focused on women.

CTE has only been observed in a few athletes in Australia – all of them have been men who primarily played professional contact sports, such as rugby, rugby league and Australian rules football. 

But concussion is not just a problem for male footballers, with international research suggesting that women could be particularly vulnerable.

“We know that women have twice the risk of sustaining concussion and having a prolonged concussion or post-concussion syndrome,” Dr Mobbs told 7.30.

“It could be hormonal, or because of different head and neck structure.

“We desperately need more research in that space for women and also children, who likewise sustain more severe, and more frequent and longer-lasting concussion than adults.”

For this reason, Julie Speight has decided to donate her brain to science.

“I just think we have to really look at the women. Let’s get a baseline out there for the research, because we’re different from men.”

Women’s sport growing, but so is the rate of concussion

In 2017, Emma Grant was selected as vice-captain of Collingwood’s first AFLW team. It was a dream come true for the then 28-year-old.

“I always dreamed that I would become the first girl to play for the Western Bulldogs, or the first girl to play AFL. I didn’t think for a moment that the AFL would actually have a women’s league,” she told 7.30.

Ms Grant had suffered a few concussions during her junior sports days, but said the injury was never taken too seriously.

“I think back then it was all about ‘carry on, suck it up, you’ll be okay’. Even when I had a huge egg on my head, I remember running around continuing to play.”

Ms Grant had never experienced any long-term side effects from the knocks she’d received in her younger years, but in January 2020, that all changed.

During a pre-season practice match, she was pinned in a tackle, landed head-first on the turf and was immediately concussed.

“It wasn’t until 24 to 48 hours later that the symptoms really started,” she said.

Ms Grant was referred to a neurologist after her symptoms persisted for a few weeks, but after not noticing any improvement after three months, she retired from the AFLW completely. 

It’s now been more than 18 months since that fateful concussion and while her condition has improved, tests show still she hasn’t fully recovered.

“It does worry me that I’ll never get back to 100 per cent,” she said.

“But I also know that where I was in February, March last year compared to where I am now, I’m so much better.” 

Unable to play herself, Ms Grant has now moved into coaching. She’s taken charge of a number of junior AFL teams across Victoria, mentoring both boys and girls. 

“It’s all about educating them regarding how to position their head during tackles. That starts at a junior level,” she said.

Protecting children from concussion is crucial, experts say

Over the past decade, elite women’s sport in Australia has experienced unprecedented growth and more than 500,000 girls and women now play some form of football, whether that be soccer, Australian rules, rugby league or rugby union.

Dr Rowena Mobbs said trying to prevent head injuries in women should therefore be a national priority. 

“When we think of the risk of CTE, it may be much like exposure to tobacco — the longer you smoke, the higher your risk of lung cancer,” she said.

“Overseas in the NFL, for example, the research shows that for every year that you play, you may have a 30 per cent increased risk of CTE.” 

She said sporting leagues could easily minimise head trauma by limiting the amount of tackling practice players do during training. 

Dr Mobbs said she is also pleased that Australia’s major football codes have introduced mandatory two-week leave periods for players that have suffered a concussion.

“Why rush back when you would equate a fracture or a hamstring injury with time off in the order of weeks, rather than days? I think it’s no different here.”

However, for Julie Speight, awareness of the threat concussion poses has come far too late.

“Just think ahead of what concussion looks like in 40 years’ time. It looks like this.

“I should be like this when I’m 80, not 54.”

Watch this story tonight on 7.30 on ABC TV and iview.