Osaka, mental health, and the French open - wow

CallMeAl

So I don’t follow tennis, but I stumbled across this and WOW.

Osaka doesn’t want to do media appearances because it makes her anxious, and the French Open organisers have behaved horrendously. They’ve fined her $15k, made patronising tweets, and now she’s quit the comp.

I can’t believe in this day and age they thought it would be a good idea to take a draconian line on this. Are people who follow tennis really there for the press conferences or is it about the game?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/tennis/2021/05/29/french-open-roland-garros-deletes-tweet-alluding-naomi-osaka/5264743001/

https://www.rolandgarros.com/en-us/article/statement-from-grand-slam-tournaments-regarding-naomi-osaka

Their statement is gross.

“The mental health of players competing in our tournaments and on the Tours is of the utmost importance to the Grand Slams. We individually and collectively have significant resources dedicated to player well-being.”

ORLLY. Smacks of “we have psychologists onsite who we expect to make everyone better even if they have no power to change anything crappy we do to people”. And then carries on about being fair to other players. What a load of bullcrap.

I really hope some other players quit in solidarity. I don’t know whether it’s likely, but what they are doing needs to be challenged.

squeekums

yeah heard it this morning, what a joke

i hope others refuse now in support of her

AliasGrace

I read about this yesterday and agree with Osaka. I don’t really see the point of forcing players who have just lost a match to do media interviews. I follow the tennis and the post-match press conferences are awful. The questions are clearly designed to provoke some “newsworthy” comment. Imagine if you had a really crap day at work and messed up on a critical project and then had to answer a bunch of inane and provocative questions about it.

I would be ok with the expectation of post-match interviews for those who have won. But there’s enough for sports journalists to report on without mandating press conferences for everyone.

ETA: I read about this yesterday and didn’t realise that she had now withdrawn from the tournament. That’s absolutely appalling. It’s obvious from watching Osaka speak even after she has won Grand Slam tournaments that she’s not at all comfortable talking to the media. It’s almost painful to watch. What a way to punish and stigmatise her for speaking up.

RichardParker

I for one would be happy to see much less air time given to players and commentators saying some version of, “we/they tried really hard but didn’t/did win.” Good on her.

LadySybilVimes

She said she’s been struggling since the 2008 US Open where the crowd and the US media behaved appallingly because she beat Serena Williams. I don’t follow tennis but I remember feeling very uncomfortable at the way she was treated because she “spoiled” Serena’s chance by winning.

I think withdrawing and telling people why was a good decision. Tennis organisations need to look at how they treat young players.

catbus

AFAIK it’s part of their contracts. So yeah, they are there for press conferences as well as the game.

However, I think it’s a stupid part of their contract tbh. Especially if you didn’t win, I can certainly see how that would effect your mental health.

As far as Osaka goes, I can see how uncomfortable she is from previous press conferences. It’s so unfair that she’s felt she needed to withdraw. She was willing to pay the fine, that should’ve been it.

CallMeAl

I don’t think they should have fined her at all. Apparently it would have been $140k worth of fines if she’d continued through the competition - that sort of treatment would take a toll on one’s mental health too.

I agree that it’s a stupid part of the contract. And more to the point, it would be within any employers power to use their discretion in whether to enforce precise contract terms heavy handedly or take individual circumstances and reasonableness into account. They chose the former.

Moo

I am really impressed by her speaking out about this. The French Open’s response is appalling.

I think it’s important to note that she has said the tennis press have always been kind to her and that she apologises to the cool journalists that she may have hurt. Just in terms of we don’t want to demonise a group of people she is clearly not speaking out against.

Woohoo

I love watching tennis and I never watch the press conferences. Boring as batshit and I have no understanding of why players should be forced to do them.

I feel for Naomi Osaka – she’s there to play tennis, not risk her mental well-being

wannabefree

I’m not hugely interested in interviews of sports players either however professional sports players are entertainers, and it goes with the territory so it is a part of their role. Many actors struggle with press conferences too due to anxiety but they are part of their contract - acting behind a camera is very different from dealing with live interviews.

However a person who is struggling with an aspect of their job due to mental or physical health issues should most definitely be given support and have an adjustment made, as supported by their medical team, just like everyone else deserves with their jobs.

PuddingPlease

I have mixed feelings because I suspect that the profile of less well known players probably gets a boost from the press conferences and that their public profile is pretty vital to getting sponsorship and endorsements.

It’s easy to say that you don’t want to do any of that stuff when you already have the profile and don’t have to worry about money. Assuming that the organisers are sincere when they say that not doing the conferences between matches gives her an advantage (more down-time, more time to train and prepare, more focus, etc.) then it seems reasonable to remind her that it’s mandatory. Preparation for competition at that level is not just a feat of physical endurance and being able to manage the press is part of the job.

I do feel for her personally and it sounds like she is really struggling with the weight of pressure and expectation. The process of travelling and quarantining and then training for tournaments must be absolutely gruelling right now and she is so young. I hope she is able to take some time to rest and regroup now, nobody should feel like they have to endure that kind of hectic lifestyle if it’s not manageable for them.

CallMeAl

PuddingPlease Assuming that the organisers are sincere when they say that not doing the conferences between matches gives her an advantage (more down-time, more time to train and prepare, more focus, etc.) then it seems reasonable to remind her that it’s mandatory.

Does that really seem sincere? If press conferences were THAT damaging to most players does it seem like they would still be widespread? And do they really take that long that they would endow them with more training time AND more down time?

I’m very dubious of that claim. It sounds about as sincere as the one where they pretend they are interested in the mental health of the players) which again if they WERE, and press conferences disadvantaged people that much, why would they happen? I smell bullshit.

It’s only as mandatory as they make it. They aren’t helpless in this, they have the choice not to enforce when it’s unreasonable.

PuddingPlease

CallMeAl

Given that they might only have 24-48 hours between matches, 1 hour to hold a press conference seems like quite a big investment of time during crucial preparation. It’s not about being inherently harmful, it’s about whether having the extra time gives that player an advantage, however small.

Of course they have the option to stop doing press conferences but elite athletes are extremely well remunerated when they win and the only reason anyone is willing to pay them for their prowess on the tennis circuit is because people tune in to watch. I have no idea whether the interviews after the match are a big draw card but organisers evidently think that they are and so they are a condition of participation. That doesn’t seem wildly unreasonable on the surface of it.

CallMeAl

Really? On the surface of it I feel like fining someone $15k for not doing something absolutely peripheral to the ‘job’ they are hired for (and famous for) that clearly causes them a lot of anxiety, while they are struggling with said anxiety, could not fall MORE in the bucket of wildly unreasonable if they asked her to do it naked while riding a horse.

Players have all sorts of advantages - height, weight, athleticism… for that matter mental state. Perhaps if they are concerned about ‘evening the field’ they should do something to make all the other athletes as anxious and depressed as she is.

Or not. Because it would be ridiculous. As this is.

CallMeAl

To me this video shows a little of what a toll it takes on her. Forcing someone to do that is not ok.

PuddingPlease

CallMeAl

Compared with what?

Manual labourers destroy their backs and knees by middle age. People work in jobs that destroy their hearing. Healthcare workers caring for patients with dementia manage regular violence and abuse from their patients. Anyone working in a drinking establishment will be expected to deal with uninhibited behaviour from intoxicated adults.

Many many people are required to meet stringent requirements in terms of their appearance in order to maintain employment. All of these things can take an enormous toll on their well-being, for a lot of people these are the realities of work.

DYNAR

While I suspect this guy did this for different reasons I love his resolve - repeating “I’m here so I won’t get fined”. He was threatened with a $500000 fine but I think that was if he didn’t turn up at all - near as I can work out he did not get fined for this. An ESPN story says NFL contracts only require them to be there (may have changed since this).

https://www.newsweek.com/marshawn-lynch-gets-trademark-approved-im-just-here-so-i-wont-get-fined-410657

CallMeAl

PuddingPlease

The old “others have it worse so we don’t need to make it better?”

That’s a disappointing approach.

PuddingPlease There is an assumption running through this discussion that those interviews do not make the competitions more financially profitable but I suspect this wouldn’t be an issue if they didn’t.

The assumption that “they must be there for a good reason” puts a lot of faith in the judgement of the people at the top of the tournaments. I’d suggest that current events show that faith to be misplaced. I would also suspect that any effect the press conferences had on making the tournaments more profitable probably existed in the distant past, when we only had access to celebrities indirectly via the media. That no longer holds.

I would argue that having the top tennis players in the world participate in your tournament does a whole lot more to make them profitable than having people sit around responding to inane questions after it. If insistence on the latter costs you the former - you’ve stuffed up.

I found this article on it really interesting.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2021/may/31/were-not-the-good-guys-osaka-shows-up-problems-of-press-conferences

Moo I think you might be underestimating the importance of the press conferences. I’d say publicity is arguably one of the most important aspects to any spectacle (sporting or showbiz).

I agree about the importance of publicity. I think you may be overestimating how much of their publicity/public interest is generated by those inane press conferences. There are many more avenues of media now and that’s not one I’ve seen generate any interest.

DYNAR

I think this tweet encapsulates my thoughts

PuddingPlease

DYNAR

I get it, I really do. But isn’t the fact that it’s physically and emotionally hard the reason professional athletes are paid so much money at tournaments in the first place.

A casual google search suggests to me that the winner of the French Open wins over two million Australian dollars. For one tournament. Every competitor wins prize money (see link). If someone wants to run a tournament and offer that much money in prizes, is it really so grossly unreasonable that they insist everyone do the promotional interviews?

https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2161964/french-open-2021-dates-draws-prize-money-and-what-you-need-to-know

DYNAR

For me the prize money is a different discussion again - I don’t think a sportsperson should get that sort of money. If I ran the world so many obscenely highly paid professions would suddenly be much lower paid and so many obscenely underpaid would be paid much more.

BUT no I don’t think they are entitled to expect anything more than people getting on the court and playing their best.

PuddingPlease

DYNAR

I suppose the interesting question is, if the promotional stuff makes the tournaments (especially with covid restrictions) more profitable, would removing it altogether reduce the potential prize money available to athletes?

Fewer people would be attending matches than in the past so the TV coverage is likely a pretty big deal during a pandemic.

For established, successful and endorsed athletes this would probably not pose too many issues because the bulk of their income is paid by sponsors. For lower ranked and new players it could significantly reduce their options and the number of tournaments they play in.

There is an assumption running through this discussion that those interviews do not make the competitions more financially profitable but I suspect this wouldn’t be an issue if they didn’t.