World Cup Soccer 2022 Qatar

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Australia's World Cup hero Arnold on dealing with hearing loss
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/38194929/australias-world-cup-hero-arnold-dealing-hearing-loss

SYDNEY -- With almost all the eyes in the country trained on her, Mackenzie Arnold -- "Macca" to her friends -- wrote her name into Australia's sporting legend with her gargantuan goalkeeping performance during the penalty shootout against France in the Matildas' Women's World Cup quarterfinal on Saturday.

Her saves during the longest round of penalties in World Cup history were the cherry on top of a near-perfect run so far this tournament for the shot-stopper. Arnold's life has also changed dramatically off the field this year, with the confirmation of worsening hearing loss that has led the 29-year-old to her first pair of hearing aids.

Quite the story with some inspiration from her brother.

Growing up with a brother, Sam, who had significant hearing loss from the age of 3, Arnold was well used to the sight of the medical devices peeking out from behind his ears. Her friends would joke with her about needing to have her own hearing checked, given her frustrating habit of responding, "What?" to them, family and teammates, but it wasn't until the start of the pandemic that things began to change for the goalkeeper. Only once those she interacted with on a daily basis had their mouths covered behind masks did Arnold realise she had been relying on her own ability to lip-read to help her get by.

"I think it was just something in the back of my mind that I was just like, I didn't think I wanted to believe it, but I think it was something [having her hearing checked] that I always knew I probably should get done," Arnold told ESPN.

When it came to the nuts and bolts of setting up an appointment, Sam took the lead at her request, as she admitted to not even knowing what she was looking for. Eventually she booked an appointment at a hearing centre he had found.

"I went and got checked and straight away she was like: 'You need to get hearing aids,'" Arnold recalled. "It obviously wasn't as severe as my brother's, but she sort of just said that if it wasn't something that I looked into getting now, it probably would just keep getting worse and worse over time."

But there was a degree of feet dragging from the goalkeeper, who didn't want to accept the inevitability of her situation.

Again, brother Sam's experience of a life with hearing aids helped Arnold.

"My brother really helped with that... he was just sort of like: 'You're not even going to realise it in a couple months and it's going to change your life,'" Arnold said. "So, yeah, I guess it was an easy decision after I had come to it, but I think it was just sort of accepting the fact at the start."