![]() ![]() Particularly as she has the media to thank for being the highest-paid female athlete in the world right now. She’s quite happy for the press to be all over her when she wins, but she wants them out of her face when she’s not playing well? That’s not how it works, I’m afraid. She thinks the rules shouldn’t apply to her because she’s the best. They all face the same 'tough' but perfectly legitimate questions Osaka has faced, and they all get on with it. Just about every top professional performs worse on clay compared with other surfaces. The French Open also eluded Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis, while just three of Serena Williams’ 23 Grand Slam wins have come at the French Open. Neither did John McEnroe, Boris Becker or Jimmy Connors. Pete Sampras, the most successful male American player in history, never won a single Grand Slam on clay. Ladies and gentlemen, this was Naomi Osaka’s ‘ Chad Schofield Moment ’.įor context, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic - two of the greatest tennis players of all time - have won 40 Grand Slams between them. She explained, after her withdrawal, that being asked questions about her inability to replicate her tremendous hard-court form on clay was a threat to her mental well-being, and even described routine press conferences as 'outdated' because they can make athletes feel 'vulnerable'. She’s only 23 and has already won four Grand Slams, but has notably struggled on clay surfaces. A day later, she withdrew - and would later withdraw from Wimbledon - citing that good old get-out-of-jail-free card - 'mental health concerns'.įor the non-tennis fans out there, Osaka is the sport’s next big thing. She was fined $15,000 for the infraction and was threatened with expulsion from the tournament. ![]() The Japanese tennis star, who grew up in the States, made international headlines in June after refusing to carry out her media duties ahead of the French Open. Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open, and later from Wimbledon, citing mental health issues If you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen, and don’t pretend the kitchen shouldn’t be hot in the first place. We shouldn't necessarily demonise those who decide to quit, but nor should we pretend as if resilience and mental strength aren’t important things to instil in a person, particularly elite-level athletes. Sure, dealing with pressure is difficult, but there isn’t an elite sportsman or woman alive who doesn’t have to handle an Olympic-sized-swimming-pool amount of it on a weekly, daily or even hourly basis. But in all likelihood, she’d have stuck it out, just like her medal-barren US teammates Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum have done. Ask yourself, would Biles have withdrawn from the Olympics in 2016 under the same circumstances? Y'know, before all the money, and all the medals and the security that comes with them? Who knows. After all, we aren’t all multi-millionaire Nike-endorsed Olympic prodigies. What she is a fan of, it seems, is the notion that you can quit if things get a little tough - an attitude which is as unhealthy as it is unrealistic. That’s how winning is done!"īased on last week, I don't think Simone is much of a Sylvester Stallone fan. How much you can take and keep moving forward. To quote Rocky Balboa (corny, I know): "It ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. She should be embracing this new challenge, rather than avoiding it like a nervous nine-year-old. She's capable of making mistakes, and she - like all of us - can lose. She said it herself during an interview with Piers Morgan two years ago, that she didn't even need to be on top of her game to win.īut now she's discovered she isn't as indestructible as she thought. She's used to being the best, and probably hasn't needed to be that resilient until now. The vast majority of us don’t have that luxury, including - notably - her teammates, who she very much left in the trenches after pulling out of the women's artistic team all round final.įollowing a tough start at the Games, Biles found herself in a situation she won't have been accustomed to. She can afford to put her mental well-being before everything else. She has millions of dollars in the bank and four Gold medals on the mantelpiece. There’s plenty of talk of ‘privilege’ right now, and most people could only dream of having the privilege Biles enjoys. ![]()
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