It's the Brian Laira show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Now I'm going to ask,

why are so many girls who play competitive sports tearing their ACLs?

If you watch or compete in sports, you know how devastating an injury to the knees.

The anterior cruciate ligament can be ACL.

It helps keep the knee stable and prevents the shin bone from kind of sliding out in front of the

thigh bone. Teenage girls, as it turns out, are tearing their ACLs at dramatically higher rates than boys

who participate in sports, sports like soccer, in particular where the risk may be several

times higher.

There's a feature in the New York Times magazine by the writer Craig Welch that digs into the mystery and heartbreak of those injuries.

The story begins with Welch's own daughter and her teammates, many of whom suffered ACL tears

in a short span of time.

So we'll talk about this ACL injury crisis in girls sports and some of the

already known ways to reduce the risks. Craig Welch's story is called, Why Are So Many Teen

Girls Still tearing their ACLs? And he joins me now. Craig, thanks for coming on. Welcome to WNYC.

Glad to be here. Thank you for having me. Key word in this headline, still.

I feel like we talked about this a few years ago.

That is true.

I believe researchers started noticing in the late 1990s that girls were tearing their ACLs more often than boys.

So it's not a new problem.

And listeners, you can help us report this story. Anybody experiencing this ACL injury yourself or,

you know, in your daughter maybe or someone else you know in girls sports, particularly soccer

as a parent, a coach, an athlete, an athletic trainer.

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