“BMX icon Dave Mirra, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in February, was suffering from a type of brain damage seen in former football and hockey players, according to a new report from ESPN The Magazine.

The 41-year-old, a freestyle BMX superstar who won 24 medals in X Games competition, is the first action sports athlete to be diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. The degenerative disease can lead to depression, dementia and memory loss, and after Mirra took his own life on February 4, his family decided to have his brain studied by a neuropathologist at the University of Toronto.”

Read the full story: BMX Icon Dave Mirra Had CTE, Doctors Say | Rolling Stone