Amateur Boxers and Football Players Will Take Part in Neurological Testing

About 220 U.S. amateur boxers will undergo neurological testing over the next four years to determine if fighters can incur brain damage from blows to the head.

The USA/Amateur Boxing Federation, amateur boxing’s governing body, said Tuesday that it has contracted with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health for a $1 million, four-year study of boxers from throughout the United States.

As part of the program, 220 amateur football players will be given the same neurological tests, to determine what, if any, neurological disorders occur in another “collision sport.”

Said Walter Stewart, assistant professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins: “We plan to determine if damage to the central nervous system occurs and if it is temporary or permanent. If abnormalities or excessive risks are found, we want to know if they are more common in boxers when compared to other athletes and to identify early warning signs of permanent injury.”

The American Medical Assn. has called for a ban on both professional and amateur boxing, citing brain damage resulting from repeated blows to the head.

Partly in response to increased AMA attacks on boxing, the International Amateur Boxing Federation voted in 1984 for mandatory use of headgear in amateur bouts. Headgear then was worn by boxers in the 1984 Olympics, for the first time.