These athletes are all sidelined from Paris Olympics for the same reason: ACL injury.

Cameron Brink was the No. 2 pick in the 2024 WNBA draft. She will miss the rest of her rookie season on the Los Angeles Sparks and her spot on Team USA’s 3x3 basketball team after tearing her ACL, one of the four major ligaments in the knee, on June 18, 2024. Here she is pictured a week before her injury on June 11, driving to the hoop against Ezi Magbegor of the Seattle Storm at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington. Research shows girls’ and women’s basketball is one of the sports that sees higher rates of ACL injuries, and female athletes in general are two to eight times more likely to tear their ACL than males, especially in sports that involve pivoting, cutting and jumping.

Olympic gold medalist Shiray Kaka (center) shared in an emotional video on May 8, 2024, that she tore her ACL, this time in her right knee. This is the 29-year-old rugby star’s third ACL injury. In a report from New Zealand’s 1 News, Kaka, who plays for the Black Ferns Sevens, injured her ACL during the team’s 24-5 win against Great Britain at the Singapore Sevens tournament on May 4, 2024. The reasons females are more likely to tear their ACL compared to males are not clear, but "prevailing theories point to the anatomical differences between men and women," including hormones, according to Yale Medicine.

Tokyo 2020 artistic gymnastics Olympian Asia D'Amato re-tore her left ACL during the qualifying round of the European Gymnastics Championships on May 2, 2024. The 21-year-old suffered an ACL injury in the same knee at last year's Cairo World Cup in the spring of 2023. Here she is pictured before the injury during the Seniors Women's All-Around Finals event at the 35th Artistic Gymnastics European Women's Championships, in Rimini, Italy, on May 2, 2024.

Italy’s Asia D'Amato re-tore her left ACL during Floor competition at the Seniors Women's All-Around Final on May 2, 2024 in Rimini, Italy. After a landing accompanied by a popping noise, she had to be carried off the mat. The 21-year-old suffered an ACL injury in the same knee at last year's Cairo World Cup in the spring of 2023. According to one study from 2014, a second ACL injury within 24 months after ACL reconstruction and returning to sport was nearly six times greater than in participants who never suffered an ACL injury, with 29.5 percent of athletes experiencing another ACL injury within that timeframe. Another study from 2020, found that young athletes that returned to sport before nine months after ACL reconstruction had a seven times higher chance of experiencing a second ACL injury.

By the end of April 2024, Amy Sayer (right) became the third Matildas player to miss out on the Paris Olympics due to an ACL injury that happened while the 22 year old was playing for Swedish club Kristianstads DFF. The Matildas’ superstar captain Sam Kerr and young winger Holly McNamara have also been sidelined due to ACL injury. According to a UEFA study, a 23-player squad can expect to see three ACL injuries over four years, but for the Matildas, that happened in less than six months.

British gymnast Ondine Achampong injured her ACL in April, announcing her withdrawal from the 2024 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championship on her social media account. On Instagram she wrote, “I landed a bars dismount at one of our final control competitions at Lilleshall and following an MRI scan it was discovered that I’ve torn my ACL. I feel devastated.” Achampong was part of the British squad that took silver at the World Championships in 2022. The injury comes just a month after the 20-year-old won four gold medals at the British Gymnastics Championships in March 2024.

Tokyo Olympic 3000m steeplechase silver medalist Courtney Frerichs injured her ACL in April 2024, forcing the 31-year-old to miss the Olympic Trials and the Paris Games. She had surgery on her right knee to reconstruct the torn ligament in May. On social media, Frerichs wrote the injury happened while practicing water jumps when her knee hyperextended in the water pit, resulting in a complete tear of her ACL and her medial and lateral menisci. Frerichs recorded the best U.S. women’s steeple result in Olympic history with her silver in Tokyo in 2021. The women’s steeple debuted on the Olympic program in 2008.

Midge Purce, who was named the championship game MVP after leading NJ/NY Gotham FC to a 2023 NWSL title, injured her ACL during Gotham's season-opener against the Portland Thorns on March 24, 2024. The 28-year-old forward will miss the entire NWSL season and the Paris Olympics with the U.S. women’s national team. In a social media post on March 27, Purce called the injury “a reality I’m still struggling with … I’m heartbroken to no longer be available for my season with Gotham or for Olympic selection with the USWNT."

Angel City FC’s Jun Endo injured her left ACL during the club’s preseason training camp in Melbourne, Florida, in February, sidelining her for the rest of the 2024 NWSL season. In an interview with USA TODAY, the 24 year old said the injury happened during a non-contact play where she tried to turn, but her cleat got stuck in the grass and her knee continued to turn. Endo also plays for Japan’s national team and competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but will miss the Paris Games as she recovers.

Chelsea FC's Mia Fishel (center) injured her ACL while she was training with the U.S. women’s national team in February ahead of the CONCACAF W Gold Cup. Fishel, age 23, was Sam Kerr’s backup on Chelsea after Kerr also tore her ACL in January.

Jill Roord, who plays for Manchester City and the Netherlands national team, injured her ACL during Manchester City’s Continental Cup win over Manchester United on Jan. 24, 2024, forcing the 27-year-old to miss the rest of the club season and the Olympics.

Matildas and Chelsea FC forward Sam Kerr suffered a second ACL injury in January 2024 during a training camp with Chelsea in Morocco, forcing her to miss the rest of the 2023-2024 club season and the Paris Olympics. In an interview with Sky Sports, Chelsea coach Emma Hayes said Kerr, age 30, was injured “doing a football action (Kerr) does every day - turning and shooting. Something very simple and innocuous." Kerr's first ACL injury happened in her other knee in 2012 and forced her to miss the London Olympics.

Philadelphia Eagles’ wide receiver and Olympic hurdler Devon Allen injured his ACL on Dec. 22, 2023, in a non-contact play during practice with the Eagles. It’s the third time the 29-year-old has suffered a torn ACL, each time on the football field. Allen told the Arizona Republic that a hamstring graft was used to reconstruct his ACL on Jan. 5, 2024. In an interview with LetsRun.com, Allen said the play he injured his knee on, he’s done “probably 100 times this season, the same route, the same kind of movements.” Research shows sports that involve pivoting, cutting and jumping see higher rates of ACL tears, with female athletes having a two to eight time higher risk compared to male athletes. Allen has won the U.S. national championship in the 110-meter hurdles three times, and he was on the U.S. Olympic team in both 2016 and 2020, but will miss the 2024 Paris games as he recovers.

Melbourne City’s Holly McNamara, age 20, suffered a third ACL injury after scoring the game winner against the Newcastle Jets on Nov. 19, 2023. McNamara, who had just been named to the Matildas squad days prior, was carried off the field in a stretcher. It was the second time McNamara injured her ACL in her right knee, the first time being when she was 15 years old, according to Melbourne City FC. She injured her left ACL in February 2022.