Column: Naomi Osaka quitting the French Open is our invitation to find a better way. And that goes beyond tennis.
Chicago TribuneJun 02, 2021
Maybe there's a better way.
When tennis star
The usual boorish suspects offered their usual boorish takes.
But even
"Facing unwelcome questions, even in defeat," sports writer
Or maybe there's a better way.
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Columns are opinion content that reflect the views of the writers.
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Maybe the second-ranked woman in all of tennis telling leaders of the sport that her health weighs more than their traditions is an invitation for the sport to do better.
Maybe instead of whining about Osaka's privilege (But she's rich!) or clinging to custom (But the rules!), fans could view her decision as groundbreaking -- an attempt to propel the sport into a better, more inclusive future, not unlike King defeating
Maybe it's time to truly examine the ways that athletes are commoditized and dehumanized, simply because the public enjoys watching them perform remarkable feats, simply because that public is fickle and also enjoys poking the wounds of our heroes when they fall.
Maybe there's a better way.
And maybe, as we emerge from a pandemic that shook up everything and everyone, that could be our mantra in all things: Maybe there's a better way.
A Bloomberg article this week interviewed workers who are quitting their jobs rather than adhere to employers' demands that they return to the office, after more than a year of remote work.
"They feel like we're not working if they can't see us,"
A May survey of 1,000
This will, no doubt, be met with a lengthy round of back-in-my-day complaining and millennial/Gen Z bashing.
But it could just as easily, and a whole lot more productively, be a catalyst for transformative, lasting change.
The coronavirus pandemic laid bare our structural inequities, our health disparities, our desperate need for more mental health resources and the holes in our public safety nets. It forced us to invent and improvise, question and calibrate. It robbed us of loved ones and livelihoods.
And now it's slowly receding, allowing us to rebuild and reimagine. And we should do that with an eye toward a better way, not just the old way.
"I'm gonna take some time away from the court now," Osaka wrote on Instagram, explaining her decision to quit the
She wrote that she's suffered long bouts of depression since 2018 and that news conferences trigger her anxiety.
"I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to the tennis going on in
Osaka is not a public servant. She doesn't owe us access or answers. Her job is tennis, and her health is her right. That's something I would hope a pandemic would crystallize for us.
Her decision shocked a lot of systems, particularly those wedded to the status quo. But it could also be instructive and inspiring, as we emerge into a transformed and transforming world, post-pandemic.
Maybe there's a better way. An maybe we should thank the folks who help us search for it.
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