{"id":866663,"date":"2026-06-14T12:07:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T12:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/866663\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T12:07:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T12:07:17","slug":"concussions-in-the-wnba-are-on-the-rise-but-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/866663\/","title":{"rendered":"Concussions in the WNBA are on the rise. But why?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ariel Atkin<\/a>s\u2019 head whipped back. After taking an elbow from Indiana\u2019s Monique Billings on May 13, the Sparks<\/a>\u2019 team doctors spotted the potential for a head injury and sent her to the locker room.<\/p>\n

It was the second concussion of her career, but she didn\u2019t know that at the time. All she knew was that her head hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just don\u2019t feel like yourself,\u201d Atkins said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to even be a part of society. Luckily, this wasn\u2019t a serious one.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been eight diagnosed concussions in the WNBA<\/a> already this year after just a quarter of the season. There were eight total in 2025, four in 2024 and six in 2023.<\/p>\n

The \u201cwhy\u201d could be bad luck, better awareness in diagnosing concussions or something else. Atkins thought the lack of game flow<\/a> because of new officiating standards might be making things harder.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would think it should be down,\u201d Atkins said. \u201cMaybe there is no rhythm when there are stoppages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atkins got hit in the nose against the Wings three weeks after returning from her concussion. She stayed in the game after a quick check on the bench.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t have a concussion that time, but players do seem to be getting hit in the head at a higher rate. Minnesota-based sports scientist Lucas Seehafer thinks it\u2019s too early to make a definitive declaration of why that is happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome players and coaches in the past have talked about the physicality of the play,\u201d he said. \u201cI know some people have talked about how the rules are kind of lax, or you\u2019re maybe not as rigorous as what they could be in terms of like punishing blows above the shoulders and that kind of stuff. But it\u2019s tough to say with any certainty until we get more data.\u201d<\/p>\n

On opening night in Seattle, Golden State forward Cecilia Zandalasini suffered her first concussion when elbowed by the Storm\u2019s Zia Cooke.<\/p>\n

She called the process to return a \u201cnightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so weird with the feeling of always having a headache,\u201d she said. \u201cI had to wait until it was gone, I couldn\u2019t move.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Valkyries <\/p>\n

Valkyries forward Cecilia Zandalasini called working through concussion protocal a \u201cnightmare\u201d earlier this season.<\/p>\n

(Ellen Schmidt \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Seehafer said that when it comes to women\u2019s sports, hockey and soccer have a reputation for having higher concussion rates, but basketball can be just as physical.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompared to the rest of the [pro sports] leagues, the WNBA is pretty much doing exactly what the other leagues are doing, but again, is that enough?\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough to say. I would say they\u2019re not, but I don\u2019t think they\u2019re egregiously leaving athletes open to even more severe injuries, necessarily. My bias is just that everything can be safer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The WNBA follows the same concussion protocol as the NBA, by which a player must undergo a locker room evaluation after getting hit in the head. If the player is cleared by medical staff, they can return to the game.<\/p>\n

Any player showing concussion-related symptoms, such as a headache or dizziness, must be monitored for 24 hours by the team\u2019s medical staff. Once they are symptom-free, they go through a range of activities from light physical activity to full-contact practice. They must stay symptom-free throughout that entire process to be allowed back into games.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack when I played, I didn\u2019t know what concussion meant,\u201d said Sparks coach Lynne Roberts. \u201cI think now we understand the science of how serious it is, and we don\u2019t rush them back. Once they\u2019re back, there\u2019s really nothing you can do. It\u2019s a contact sport, and the players just kind of play through that, but obviously we\u2019re very cautious with not letting a player play until the doctor\u2019s fully certain that she\u2019s symptom-free and at no risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hardest part with concussions can be the initial diagnosis. Oftentimes, symptoms show up hours or even days later. For Zandalasini, she was originally diagnosed with a jaw injury before dealing with a headache the next day.<\/p>\n

Atkins knew a little bit about what concussions felt like, and even this time was different. Why concussions are up this year is still a mystery, and perhaps it will even out as the season goes on.<\/p>\n

But for now, players and medical staff are on alert.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the thing with athletes, right?\u201d Atkins said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to figure out pain versus injury, like, is it something serious? Is it not? I don\u2019t want to hurt myself further. So, yeah, it can be hard to decipher that with a head injury.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ariel Atkins\u2019 head whipped back. After taking an elbow from Indiana\u2019s Monique Billings on May 13, the Sparks\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":866664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1501,1582,276,43953,183513,353123,2385,353122,14499,96179,290182,2961,123228,224,5337,62777,9323,1926,6620,232],"class_list":["post-866663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ariel-atkins","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-cecilia-zandalasini","tag-concussion","tag-concussion-related-symptom","tag-day","tag-game-flow","tag-head","tag-headache","tag-high-rate","tag-la","tag-locker-room","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-medical-staff","tag-player","tag-sport","tag-time","tag-wnba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116748382638059745","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}