Naomi Osaka famously declined to do a press conference at Roland Garros to protect her mental health, causing controversy.
She ultimately withdrew from that event under threats of fines by the event, which pointed out that media availability is part of the job of a tennis player. The Japanese player was dealing with a lot of stress at the time as the situation became a talking point in the mental health conversation in sports.
All athletes are humans, yet it seems like they can face mental health problems which is why for a long time, talks about that were frowned upon in the sports community. Osaka is now doing much better, hoping to help others as well. In a recent talk with Mountaintop Conversations, the player spoke about the media situation and how she actually enjoys it.
I kind of have this thing in my head that I say a lot. I always tell myself, 'You're a Haitian, you're not supposed to have any fear.' And it's because my dad is always shouting '1804'. Growing up in this interview world, I have a very open character so I’m very… Sometimes I say stuff that I shouldn’t say in the press room, and it often gets me into trouble.
Contrary to popular belief, Osaka actually enjoys talking to journalists, which she admitted is probably unknown to them. She is shy by her own admission, but talking to reports is something that is cool to her, having somebody care.
But it’s because I like journalists, I don’t think they know this but I like talking to them and I like clearing their questions and for me, it’s cool that someone cares enough about me to ask me questions like that.
But slowly as I started becoming more known, there have been people that I feel their energy is to exploit. So I felt myself becoming more closed-off and I felt my character changing and I didn't really like that. So at this point when I was thinking 'I need to take a break, but I can't take a break from it because then I'll get fined'. But then I thought I'd rather take the fine than go through that with my energy.
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