Family of Olympic cyclist Kelly Catlin, 23, donate her brain for concussion ...

The family of Olympic cyclist Kelly Catlin has donated her brain to concussion research.

Catlin, 23, committed suicide last week at her on-campus residence at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. 

The Boston University Brain Bank, along with Veterans Affairs and the Concussion Legacy Foundation, confirmed to DailyMail.com that the donation was received from California on Tuesday.

This is the same center that has studied the brains of former football players and found evidence of a brain disease due to repeated head blows in nearly all of them including former player Joe Perry and the late Aaron Hernandez.  

Catlin's family believes a concussion she sustained in December may have resulted in neurological changes to her brain that led to depression and her eventual suicide.

Olympic cyclist Kelly Catlin's family has donated her brain to the Veterans Affairs-Boston University-Concussion Legacy Foundation Brain Bank. Pictured: Catlin competes in the Women's Individual Pursuit Finals during 2017 UCI World Cycling in April 2017 in Hong Kong

Olympic cyclist Kelly Catlin's family has donated her brain to the Veterans Affairs-Boston University-Concussion Legacy Foundation Brain Bank. Pictured: Catlin competes in the Women's Individual Pursuit Finals during 2017 UCI World Cycling in April 2017 in Hong Kong

Catlin, 23 (pictured), committed suicide last week at her on-campus residence at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Pictured: Calin posted with her gold medal after winning the women's individual time trial cycling competition at the Pan Am Games in Ontario in July 2015

The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner's report ruled the cause of death as suicide by asphyxia. Pictured: Catlin celebrates with her medal at the ICI Track World Championships - Women's Individual Pursuit Final in Hong Kong in April 2017

Catlin, 23 (pictured), committed suicide last week at her on-campus residence at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Pictured: Calin posted with her gold medal after winning the women's individual time trial cycling competition at the Pan Am Games in Ontario in July 2015

'Our family decided to have a neuropathologic examination performed on Kelly's brain to investigate any possible damage caused by her recent head injury and seek explanations for recent neurologic symptoms,' Mark Catlin told The Post. 

On its website, the center is advertised as 'the largest tissue repository in the world focused on traumatic brain injury (TBI) and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)' and houses more than 600 brains.   

According to The Washington Post, scientists at the BU-CTE Center told the Catlins that testing her brain could take up to 12 months.

Catlin was the youngest of triplets that included her sister Christine and her brother Colin.

She only began competitively cycling at age 17, but quickly shot to fame. She was a member of the US team that won world championship titles in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Catlin was also on the four-person US women's team that claimed silver at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

In the midst of all of this, she was pursuing a graduate degree in computational mathematical engineering at Stanford. 

Last year, she graduated from the University of Minnesota with undergraduate degrees in biomedical

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