A messy situation has come to a close with Naomi Osaka’s announcement that she has withdrawn from the French Open.
Could the organisers have handled it better? Could Osaka have handled it better? Could the media have handled it better? The answer to all those questions is almost certainly yes. But this entire episode is just a microcosm of the modern state of journalism and raises questions about the stress put on athletes in our unquenchable thirst for more and more content.
The Japanese world number 2 announced in the build-up to the Roland Garros tournament that she would not be participating in any press conferences in order to protect her mental health. All forms of media were immediately awash with widely varying opinions – some supportive, others sadly predictably vitriolic.
Whilst public awareness of mental health has undoubtedly increased considerably over the last decade or so, there is still a long way to go to tame the stigma surrounding it; particularly amongst the older generations.
On a personal note, I have seen the effects of mental health up close. I lost a friend to bipolar disorder and then, upon losing my father in 2018, watched as my mother refused to let herself truly grieve and snapped at simply the utterance of the phrase ‘mental health’.
This still appears to be some people’s immediate response. ‘Mental health’, in the eyes of a portion of the public, is reserved solely for ‘crazy people’.
“Men don’t cry”, they hark. “Maintain that British stiff upper lip.”
This is a notion particularly apparent in sport. It is perhaps linked to the inherent physicality; each discipline’s modern-day gladiators, battling it out in the appropriate arena, doing their best not to show any signs of weakness.
But we no longer live in a gladiatorial age. There is not an emperor watching from above, ready to deliver the competitors’ fate via a thumbs up or thumbs down. We live in an age of millions of self-appointed emperors, ready to deliver their thumbs down emojis and far, far worse over social media.
So, it should come as absolutely no surprise that Osaka – amongst many others who no doubt suffer in silence – endures bouts of depression. Even if you swear off social media and/or delegate management of your social platforms to a hired team, abuse is unavoidable. Below is the reception Osaka received in person as the winner of the US Open in 2018.
And once you’ve survived the mental onslaught of performing under the most intense spotlight in a daunting amphitheatre, you are sat down – with adrenaline still coursing through your veins – in front of the headline-hungry press.
This is the crux of the issue. We now live in a world where elements of the media have grown slowly redundant. In a time of smartphones, with all the world’s information seconds away via one Google search, newspapers are no longer essential in letting the world know the score, and how that score came to be. So, they are forced into predatory tactics, desperate for a quote that can be twisted to form a suitably clickbait-y headline and get those oh-so-precious page views.
But that’s not what journalism should be. There are other ways in which to refine the modus operandi; to adjust to the modern world in a manner befitting what was once a profession aimed to enlighten, rather than muddy the waters.
It is possible to produce an article without a reliance on quotes from competitors. I have done so here.
It is possible to provide meaningful insight and technical knowledge in one’s own words to produce an article worthy of the reader’s time. Rather than relying on a momentarily lapse from the athlete’s carefully rehearsed public relations spiel.
Yes, perhaps Osaka and her team could have handled this situation better. Maybe by going to the organisers directly rather than making the announcement on Twitter. But it would be no surprise to learn that she has done exactly that in the past, only to have her protestations fall on deaf ears.
The 23-year-old has made a real statement in Paris. She has effectively called the organisers’ bluff, after being threatened with expulsion from the tournament in the wake of her absence at Monday’s press conference. Osaka is likely far from the only young tennis player to feel this way and, if others follow suit, there won’t be a tournament to report on at all.
Raw emotion is a part of what makes sport so great, but watching the drama unfold should be enough. Immediately shoving a microphone in the loser’s face should not be deemed a necessity. And a tennis player forcing journalists to be a little creative with their writing should not be punishable by expulsion.
