Female athletes all around the world are prone to tearing their ACL. If an athlete had one fear, it would be never playing that one sport they eat, sleep, and breathe, ever again. That searing pain that shoots up your leg, the pop that echoes through your ears, the swelling that engulfs your entire kneecap; those are a few of the several symptoms that could damagingly change your life forever. No one sees it coming. It sneaks up on you like an inevitable nightmare that never stops, unless you start preventing it now. It could be that one sprint you run, that fifth rebound you get, that endless relay you have to swim, and before you know it, it’s your last.

“Tears to the anterior cruciate ligament sideline more athletes for longer periods of time than almost any other acute injury. Seasons, even careers, end when the A.C.L. tears” (NY Times, 1). Studies show that adolescent female athletes are eight times more likely than boys to suffer a serious ACL injury throughout their athletic careers. ACL injuries are one of the most common injuries among athletes both male and female, but mostly among females. An ACL tear arises in the knee when a sudden change in direction or pivot occurs while your knee is locked in place. For those that are not aware of the ACL, it is one of four major ligaments that stabilize the knee. Its principal role is to prevent knee instability by keeping the tibia from sliding forward relative to the femur. The American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine states that female basketball and soccer players are more likely to injure their ACLs compared against their men counterparts. Dr. Cynthia LaBella, the medical director of the Institute for Sports Medicine at Children’s hospital of Chicago says, “Girls have to work harder to strengthen their hamstring and muscle equality… they tend to rely on their ligaments and bones to stop joint motion rather than use all muscle groups around that joint to stabilize it” (Dispatch 6). So many incredible, talented female athletes tear their ACL at such a young age. Coming back from an ACL injury is not as easy as it seems. “While research cannot pinpoint a definitive cause for the higher numbers of ACL tears in female athletes, there are many contributing factors. When athletes of either male or female hit puberty--typically around the time they're freshmen in high school--they're asked to train harder than ever before. But girls often have bodies unequipped for such vigorous training” (ESPN 13). After innumerable sophisticated surgeries and countless hours of physical therapy, the athlete is less than likely to return back to normal, the way they were before the accident. It takes athletes approximately six to nine months to recover from such an injury.

Millions of athletes are asking what the prevention from contracting an ACL tear is. ESPN recommends the following exercises to prevent the tear from occurring; Walking lunges to strengthen your quads, single toe raises to strengthen the calves and increase balance, forward/backward jumps to increase your power and strength, and exercises to enable you to decelerate.

Caroline Doty, a women’s basketball star at UCONN in 2011 was expected to run the team. She was a huge shooting threat and feeder to the soon to be WNBA player, Maya Moore. Furthermore, Caroline Doty unfortunately tore her ACL. Former teammate Auriemma told NY times, “We still had a chance to win the national championship, but it wouldn’t of been the same because of the look on her face if we won. It would have made me feel so bad” (NYtimes).

Throughout my lifetime, I have witnessed an unusually large amount of people end their career in sports because of tearing their ACL. Friends, teammates, and even opponents have had this unfortunate experience happen to them. They have experienced relentless surgeries, the inability to play the sport that they love, and that chance that they will never be the same player they were before. Nothing wakes you up more than the sound of screeching and horrid screams filling the gym. Ever since witnessing the domino effect of this accident, I have become fully involved in the prevention of it ever happening to me. Tiger Woods, Mariano Rivera, Tom Brady, and Lindsey Vonn including many other famous athletes have halted their professional athletic careers because of this tragic accident. Yale Women’s Basketball star captain, and former Ramapo Alum Sarah Halejian recently just tore her ACL in her left knee on December 30th, in a road game against Oklahoma. Yet did she know she would be playing the last game of her career. “In her four-year career at Yale, Halejian has become one of the most decorated student-athletes in the 42-year history of the women's basketball program. The senior from Wyckoff, N.J. is a three-time All-Ivy player and sits in 10th place on the program's all-time scoring list with 1,226 career points” (Lewis 2). Sarah Halejian undoubtedly goes down in Yale History. Don’t let the brutal ACL injury knock you down, or one day you will be on the court, and the next in the operating room.