Sidelined Stories Sidelined USA

There are times when the drive to continue to compete is so strong that an athlete can end up staying at it much longer than is probably best. That certainly was the case for Emily Allard who did everything humanly possible to avoid medical retirement. She hadn’t yet, after all, been able to fulfill her dreams of playing in the Olympics and anything short of that goal was unacceptable. At a certain point though, she had to face the fact that the concussion she sustained years earlier had caus...

The decision to medically retire can be a grueling one especially for an athlete coping with chronic illness for years. In this interview, former collegiate gymnast Zoe Schweitzer talks about the challenges of coping with constant setbacks in her gymnastics career including injuries, chronic illness, and COVID-shutdowns. Zoe shares how she came to know it was time to medically retire and what led her to be confident in that decision. She opens up the emotional toll the anticipation of her soc...

No doubt every athlete experiencing repeat injuries fears the possibility of the premature end of their athletic career. Enduring years of injury, re-injury, therapies, surgeries, and rehab can take a toll on an athlete, both physically and mentally. It’s always a potential reality that one day, it becomes clear that the comeback they’re looking for is just not going to happen. That day came for Jonathan Giles his sophomore year of junior college and would cost him the scholarship he had been...

Working through a significant injury with a long recovery process is difficult for any athlete. Hundreds of hours in rehab, sitting on the sidelines for months on end, feeling a measure of disconnection from teammates, coping with depression and both internal and external pressures to return to play ready to contribute to the win — all can take a significant emotional toll. When Jackie Allibone made her comeback from a torn ACL, only to face a second and more significant devastating knee inju...

Having experienced multiple concussions in his football career, Northwestern University cornerback Matthew Harris understood the risks he was taking returning to play. Following recovery from another severe concussion, Matthew knew he had some hard decisions to make regarding his future in football. As one of the top cornerbacks in the BIG10 and projected to be an NFL recruit, he made a personal decision to keep pushing towards his dreams and hoped to avoid further brain injury. Unfortunately...

Following a severe labrum tear that derailed her dancing career in college, Chrissy Papetti spent the next several years working through an intense physical recovery on top of the emotional journey following the loss of her craft. Many athletes sidelined by injury experience an additional layer of complexity in their transitions forward - the physical rehabilitation to rebuild a normal quality of life. Walking around and exploring a new city, going on a daily run, or playing a pick-up game of...