Caution for Contact Sport Athletes and CTE / Women's Rugby Six Nations and Smaller Balls / Worst Sport to be Elite at?

Become a Supporter of The Science of Sport, and as mentioned, get a bonus episode of Applied Science every week, access to our world class forums, and (we hope) ad-free listening soon!Show notesOn the decks today:A new paper raises "substantial concerns" about the tool that is regularly used to diagnose a progressive neurodegenerative disease in contact sport athletes. We discuss the paper, and how the discourse around brain health of retired contact sport athletes has created anxiety and fear to the detriment of the athletesThe Women's Six Nations concluded, England winning it again with victory over France. We discuss the tournament, with Ross raising concerns about one-sided contests through, and the total stratification of teams, while Gareth is more optimistic about some statistical trends that suggest progress, at least on the part of some teamsOn the subject of women's rugby, the trials for a smaller ball have received more criticism from international players. Ross explains how the process is run, why nobody is being ambushed, and how the smaller ball has been explored for six years and counting to get to this pointJanik Sinner won another Masters tournament last week, breaking the record for most wins (now at six tournaments, and 34 matches, with only three lost sets). Gareth wonders what can possibly deny the Italian a French Open and Wimbledon, now that Alcaraz is missing both those Slams? Ross reckons maybe muscle cramps can defeat him...A listener, Andrew, asked an intriguing, and unanswerable question in our Supporter community - which sport would it be best to be elite at? And which is worst? We offer our thoughts and criteria for what qualifies the sportAnd Finally, the Enhanced Games are on Sunday, and Sean Ingle is attending. We offer our thoughts on what we'd most like to see happen at the Vegas circus. One swimmer is taking some precautions in anticipation of the side-effects, and we promise to revisit the performances in next week's show Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.