The striking career of United States star midfielder Sam Mewis was officially cut short Friday morning when a knee injury — proven indomitable — forced her off the pitch at the young age of 31.

“With both sadness and clarity, I am retiring from professional soccer,” Mewis said on social media. “Unfortunately, my knee can no longer tolerate the impact that elite soccer requires. Though this isn’t what I wanted, it’s clear that this is the only path forward for me.”

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Mewis initially sustained her injury on Nov. 12, 2017, during a routine slide tackle in an international friendly. Although she was able to play for a couple more years, the cartilage in her knee gradually wore down until her leg was unable to function smoothly. 

In her truncated career, Mewis delivered 24 goals and 10 assists in 83 international caps. She was named 2021 best player of the year by ESPN and 2020 Female Player of the Year by U.S. Soccer. She won the 2019 Women’s World Cup, a 2021 Olympic bronze medal, an NCAA championship with UCLA, three National Women’s Soccer League titles and the 2020 FA Cup with Manchester City. 

Mewis’ silly and endearing character has earned her various roles in sports media, and she will serve as the editor-in-chief of “The Women’s Game” on the Men in Blazers Media Network in her retirement.

As the soccer world mourns Mewis’ playing career, discussions regarding the disproportionate incidence of knee injuries and anterior cruciate ligament tears in women’s athletics have swirled.

Despite the fact that men and women competing in the same collegiate sports suffer injuries at equal rates (with men experiencing longer recovery periods), women are two to eight times more likely to endure ACL tears. 

The scourge of ACL injuries and its long-term effects plaguing women’s athletics is also seen at USC. 

Volleyball’s redshirt sophomore middle blocker Tyrah Ariail earned the 2021 Pac-12 All-Freshman Team before experiencing a season-ending ACL tear. Ariail missed the finish of the 2021 season and the entirety of the 2022 season before slowly working her way back into the rotation in the fall. Former women’s basketball guard Jacki Gemelos tore her ACL a total of five times after her final high school game, presumably delaying her break into the WNBA by seven years. Croix Bethune played three years at midfield for USC soccer after her second of three ACL tears sidelined her during her freshman season.

The injury’s frequent advent, along with its nine- to 12-month recovery period and propensity to restrict the ceiling of a victim’s career, has long placed women’s belonging in athletics into question.

Causes of ACL tears are typically bifurcated into intrinsic factors — biological or anatomical differences such as the width of tibial notches, hormones and Q-angles in the knee — and extrinsic factors — outside forces such as playing surfaces, training regiments and rushed returns to sport after injury.

In theory, USC would be able to manage modifiable risks. Athletics is fully equipped with well-funded strength and conditioning, nutrition and mental health departments across men’s and women’s sports. But even with the resources at USC, the long-term effects of gendered sporting environments continue to put women’s bodies at risk. 

The behavior, culture and assumptions that coincide with gender may be more harmful than T-width or athletes’ use of oral contraceptives. Women are less likely to engage in weight training programs from a young age than men, which could help build resistance to knee injuries. Prior to college, limited resources in women’s athletics determine inadequate conditions and injury rehab that leads to injury throughout college. 

Research in women’s sports medicine is also overlooked, as medical challenges facing women athletes are often used to deem them incapable of tolerating the demands of sports. For instance, shortly after the advent of Australia Football League Women, a surge of ACL injuries was met with headlines declaring that women were not fit for athletics, rather than a call for scientific investigations into the injury wave.

As evidenced by Mewis and women in the USC athletic network, challenges facing the health of women athletes’ brings about greater concern about women’s rights to movement and play. From a young age, boys are encouraged and entitled to physical activity regardless of environment, whereas women are deprived of the knowledge or space to move and compete safely. 

Until the gender gap in sports medicine research and perception is addressed, resources in athletics cannot be properly maximized to effectively invest in the prolonged wellbeing and performance of women athletes.