Naomi Osaka withdraws from French Open, cites mental health

She put her money where her mouth is.

Anyone arguing "sanctity blah blah tennis blah blah holy sports" are living off of her work and athletes like her to do the work for them to get fed.

 

Good for Naomi they were treating her poorly.

 

I'm not going to fault the organizers of the French Open as part of how they make money is by marketing the athletes. It's one reason why I was critical of Marshawn Lynch with "I'm just here to not get fined." At the same time I don't fault Naomi Osaka for deciding to pull out of the tournament. If her mental health is compromised to me that is pretty much the same as if her physical health is compromised. Doing publicity is part of her job being a high seeded player at the tournament. If she feels she can't perform that job without causing more harm to herself pulling out of the tournament is the right thing to do.

 

Do any athletes like doing these interviews?

 

It goes both ways. She gets paid millions for a athletics competition. The least she could do is her contractually obligated interviews that give access to the general public who finance her wealthy lifestyle.

She isn't being asked to go to Afghanistan.

 

Do you like doing paperwork with your job?

Do you enjoy the rush hour commute to your job?

Do you get paid millions of dollars for your job?

 

This. If she genuinely has mental health issues now, I would hope any employer would allow some paid sick leave to recover.

But if she is using this as a platform to go "owe is me the multimillionaire athlete being asked to do interviews", I don't have much sy.latjt for that cause in particular. Every job has aspects we don't like while being paid considerably less.

But if you do have some mental health issues that need to be resolved, an employer should respect the mental health issues and let the e.ployee resolve the issue.

 

I'm not following this super closely, or what her statement was. If she is criticizing the organizers for not allowing her to skip media interviews, then I think that's wrong. She has the same responsibilities, media-wise that anyone else has.

But if she is simply stating that she can't handle the interviews and therefore doesn't want to participate, then I see nothing wrong with that. She's not obligated to participate in a tournament.

 

I think this is one of the times where nobody is at fault. She's contractually obligated (she signed the contract) to have pre-match media availability. The French Open even points out that it would be unfair to the other athletes if they gave her an exception when everyone else would have to make themselves available.

If she has mental health issues that keep her from fulfilling her contractual obligations, then she is well within her right to pull out of the entire tournament. Its the same as if she busted her knee and couldn't play. Its still a health issue. If you aren't healthy enough to participate fully, then you can pull out.

She needs to have a mental health professional on her staff to make sure she can participate in these things, just like if she needed a physical therapy medical professional to get her ready. If we want to normalize mental health issues in the public domain, treat them just like any other physical health issue. Don't ask for special treatment OR negotiate the appropriate mental health accommodations BEFORE you sign a contract.

 

No. And they always try to get out of them. But they are important for the marketing of the event and maximizing the return on paying the participants and investing in the tournament. That is why they are specifically written out in the contracts that the athletes sign to participate.

"Athlete A is participating for a chance to win part of the 35 million euro prize pool. In return, they are obligated to participate in media event A, B, and C. They are required to wear X. They are required to blah blah blah."

Not to mention that the more popular athletes negotiate for additional things like appearance fees, nice lockers or trailers, etc.

The whole thing comes down to a contract, really. She didn't want to fulfill her portion of the contract. The French Open didn't let her out of her obligations...so she took the recourse she had and decided to not participate.

 

So what? If she couldn't handle it then quit.
She won't be the first not the last.
Many young tennis players are retiring because they can't handle the mental burden of being on the tour.
Press is part of the job. Whoever can't do it byebye.
What next?
We can't play outdoors because it is too hot? We can't have tournaments worldwide because it is too tiring to travel every week?
Tennis is an individual sport. Every athlete participating of the tour on their own free will and noone is forcing them.

Tennis has much bigger problems than freaking press conferences.
First of all the calendar. The AO and the USO should be moved to better weather dates.
Many delays due to heat and storms and horrible conditions to play under.

 

She doesn't have an employer. She is her own employer who has staff under pay and has signed a contract to join a tournament to earn money.

It is like you open your own caffee bussiness and sign a short term contract for a franchise. But then whine and quit because serving customers while smiling is too tiring of a job.
Then quit noone is forcing you to run your shop.

 

No it's not like that at all.

 

It's alot of money considering what the majority of the ones that are impoverished in Asia and Africa earn. It's a tough long stretch for a person of her heritage to endure. I wish her well.

 

She dropped out. At that point, she owes them jack ****.

They don't owe her another invitation, but no one is crying over that...yet

Depression aint easy.

She's at the start of her career, so it isn't like she did it knowing she made it or was untouchable.

 

I'm glad she is taking her mental health seriously. She should. I'm also glad that she was public about it. I hope it helps to make it less of a stigma to talk about it.

I understand that the Press conferences are part of the requirements for the players to do. That's also understandable. But if her mental health would suffer, then she is correct to place a priority on that.

 

The French Open organizers did not handle this right from the beginning. They essentially immediately threatened to default her when she said she wouldn't participate.

All of this should have been handled behind closed doors in a conversation instead blowing up for something that is so minor.

For all the talk about Naomi earning millions, guess what, Roland Garros sells tickets and gets millions in TV sales because of stars like Osaka. Not one is above the other.

 

I don't think it's a matter of her disliking the interviews. It's a matter of her having mental health issues that make it unhealthy to do them.

 

I wouldn't advise doing this but it's really hard to fire someone with non-violent mental health issues.