CNN —

Kelly Catlin and Ellie Soutter never met, but they had a lot in common.

Both were commanding athletes: Catlin, a US track cyclist, was a three-times world champion and Olympic silver medalist, and Soutter, a snowboarder, was tipped to be one of Team Great Britain’s strongest contenders for the 2022 Winter Olympics, having already won a bronze medal at the 2017 European Youth Olympic Festival.

Both were incredibly smart – Catlin was studying for a master’s degree in computational and mathematical engineering at Stanford University, while Soutter learned to speak French in about six months, according to her father.

At times they almost seemed superhuman. In 2013, after only three weeks of formal training and having broken her wrist, Soutter became British Champion with her arm in a cast. Meanwhile, Catlin, who had a tenderness for children, once rode 80 miles through sleet and snow to speak to a grade school about her Olympic experience.

Kelly, left, in the the LA velodrome just before departing for Rio and the Olympics. The team is practicing starts. Mark Catlin

Yet these two women’s lives were tragically cut short after they sustained serious head injuries in their pursuit of sporting greatness and then took their own lives. Catlin was 23, while Soutter died by suicide on her 18th birthday.

Females may be more susceptible to concussion, and they also have worse and prolonged symptoms after their injury than men, according to a review of 25 studies of sport-related concussion published in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine.

However, women remain significantly underrepresented within sport and exercise science research. This, leading experts warn, means they often do not get the treatment or aftercare they need following a head injury.

Ellie Soutter was tipped to be one of Team GB's strongest contenders, and became British Champion with her arm in a cast. Tony Soutter

Women’s sports have historically not received the same attention or funding as men’s sports, Dr. Ann McKee, Director of the Boston University Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center told CNN.

“It’s been shown that women athletes are more likely to get a concussion, they tend to have longer recovery periods,” McKee added.

“We do not have enough information about what happens in the female brain. We don’t know if women are biologically more susceptible to these injuries,” she said, adding that some research suggests the size and musculature of women’s necks could play a part.

Kelly

Kelly, pictured at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minnesota after the Olympics (2017), where she would sometimes go for workouts when she was home from university. Mark Catlin

Before becoming a track cyclist, Catlin, a triplet, was a national champion road cyclist and time trial national champion, her father Mark, told CNN. After winning a Canadian international race at 17 she was invited to an Olympic training camp for a try out, where, impressed by her performance numbers, coaches immediately offered her a position on the track pursuit team.

Catlin’s father, Mark, told CNN, that his daughter was “intense” and “ambitious,” attributes she channeled into her sporting life.

Her life changed irrevocably in January 2019. Practicing fast downhill descents in the hills near Los Angeles, she crashed and went skidding down the road.