Olympic Athletes Who Have Spoken About Their Mental Health Struggles

Tennis participant Naomi Osaka printed an essay about psychological well being through which she requested the press to present her “privateness and empathy.”

Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion, dropped out of the French Open and missed Wimbledon to give attention to her psychological well being earlier than competing within the Olympics.

The 23-year-old tennis famous person “wished to skip press conferences at Roland Garros to train self-care and preservation of my psychological well being,” she wrote for Time earlier this month. She had released a statement about her media blackout ahead of the French Open, however the event fined her $15,000 when she refused to attend her first press convention.

Quickly after, she retired from the French Open and defined in a social media submit that she will get “enormous waves of tension” earlier than chatting with the media and had skilled bouts of despair within the lead-up to the event.

Osaka wrote that she “by no means wished to be a distraction” from some of the distinguished tennis occasions of the 12 months.

“I felt beneath a large amount of stress to reveal my signs — frankly as a result of the press and the event didn’t imagine me,” Osaka wrote. “I don’t want that on anybody and hope that we will enact measures to guard athletes, particularly the delicate ones. I additionally don’t wish to have to have interaction in a scrutiny of my private medical historical past ever once more.”