Iga Swiatek is slowly becoming a Polish sports icon, but she worries that might be impacting one of the biggest ones the country has ever had.
Sports is a global phenomenon, and it contributes to many things. Some athletes become synonymous with their countries due to their fame. For example, if you say Serbia, most people will say Novak Djokovic, even though they might not know anything about the country.
He's become so famous that he's the first association people have when you mention his country. Something similar happened with Robert Lewandowski, who is by far the best Polish football player of all time.
Swiatek is slowly building up her legacy as well, and the two have been prominently featured in quite a few popular memes in the country, which feature the image when the Polish player sit in Swiatek's box.
While they are generally humorous, some prop up Swiatek while downplaying Lewandowski, and she's not fond of that.
Some memes are funny, but on the other - there are a lot of memes that praise me, but some of them create a negative connotation towards Robert Lewandowski and I don't like it.
Robert has done so much for us athletes and everything for the whole country. Still, when I go to different countries and people don't recognize me, but when I say that I'm from Poland, people say: 'Oh! Lewandowski, Lewandowski!'
There are very few things that could diminish the legacy Lewandowski created in sports. Whether Swiatek created a strong one remains to be seen, but she hopes the memes don't impact his legacy in any negative way.
It worries me that because of these memes with me, he gets a little hate. I know it's just entertainment for the fans, but I think that one day I could be in the same situation as him and he didn't deserve anything to be in such memes.
0 Comments