Naomi Osaka’s decision not to participate in any press conferences during the 2021 French Open aims to bring light to a bigger conversation on athletes, media, and mental health, which is rarely tackled nowadays.
APPARENTLY blaming the media’s intense scrutiny of personal lives of athletes that sometime cause them to break down, tennis champion Naomi Osaka on Wednesday informed her Instagram followers that she would not be participating in any press conferences during the 2021 French Open at Roland Garros.
She revealed that her decision was to bring light to a bigger conversation on athletes, media, and mental health, which is rarely tackled nowadays.
Athletes, regardless of sport, spend a large portion of their lives under the heat of the press.
They answer questions before and after matches, needing to show a polished image of themselves on these conferences on top of their social platforms.
However, not many people realize that these media conferences and the constant need to be at the top of their game may actually affect their mental health.
With May being mental health awareness month, Naomi Osaka saw it as the perfect opportunity to share her own perspective on the issue.
In her statement, she said: “I’ve often felt that people have no regard for athletes' mental health and this rings very true whenever I see a press conference or partake in one.”
Explaining how they get asked the same questions countless times, and even get questions that easily bring them down, she said that doing so is “kicking a person while they’re down.”
To support her claim, she shared two separate clips, one of world champion Venus Williams. When she was 14 years old, Williams was interviewed by a man who was doubting why she kept answering confidently.
The interview ended up with Williams’ father interrupting, shutting down his attempt to shatter the young girl’s confidence.
Osaka ended her statement by revealing that organizations often ask players to do press conferences or they get fined for not doing so.
Accepting the fact that she will get fined over refusing to do press, she urged the organization to put the amount that she gets fined towards a mental health charity (MO)
Tags: #tennis, #NaomiOsaka, #mentalhealth