Tennis pro accuses
Racism against athletes “has gotten worse and worse”
05/30/2023 12:23 p.m
Sloane Stephens easily reaches the second round at the French Open, the American delivers a strong performance. But after the match, she talks about something else: racism. And that everything is getting worse instead of better.
Sloane Stephens sets a sporting exclamation point at the start of the French Open: With 6: 0 and 6: 4 the American beats the Czech Karolina Pliskova in the first round of the Grand Slam tournament, former world number one in Paris in 16th position . A clear victory that the 2017 US Open winner was no longer expected to be capable of after complicated years. But at the press conference after the match, Stephens spoke primarily about an issue that has repeatedly overshadowed the sport and her own career: constant racist attacks. “Of course it’s been a problem throughout my career,” said the 30-year-old. “It never stopped. If anything, it just kept getting worse.” It is very problematic that “people hide behind fake profiles online and can say and do whatever they want”.
When asked about the severity and nature of the attacks, she replied, “I mean, if there’s an FBI investigation into what people are saying about you online, obviously it’s very serious.” The organizers of the French Open announced last week that they would provide athletes with artificial intelligence software to combat harassment and hate speech on the Internet. “I heard about the software. I haven’t used it,” said the American. “Obviously I’ve banned a lot of keywords on Instagram and all that stuff, but that doesn’t stop anyone from just typing an asterisk or spelling it any other way, which of course most of the time the software doesn’t recognize.”
“Will destroy your leg so badly…”
As early as 2021, Stephens had publicly addressed the topic of hate messages after her early exit from the US Open. “I’m human, after yesterday’s match I received more than 2000 messages from people who were upset about yesterday’s result,” she wrote on her Instagram channel after previously losing to German Angelique Kerber. “It’s so hard to read messages like this but I’ll post a few so you can see what it’s like after losing…” A message the tennis player posted at the time read: “I promise to love you find and destroy your leg so badly you can’t walk @sloanestephens! I hope you enjoyed your last moments on the pitch today.”
Stephens, who has been married to professional soccer player Jozy Altidore since 2022, has no hope that the situation will change again: “It’s something I’ve dealt with my entire career and will continue to deal with will, I’m sure.”
Most recently in Spain, professional footballer Vinícius Júnior from Real Madrid was insulted with racist chants in Valencia. “It wasn’t the first, second, or third time. Racism is normal in La Liga. The competition thinks it’s normal, the federation thinks so too and the opponents encourage it. I’m sorry,” Vinicius wrote after the game. “The championship that once belonged to Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cristiano and Messi now belongs to the racists. A beautiful nation that welcomed me and that I love, but which has agreed to project the image of a racist country into the world export.”
The incident quickly became political. The hostilities against Vinicius were sharply criticized by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, among others. Leading conservative politicians in Spain also condemned all forms of racism, but rejected Vinicius’ accusation that Spain is now considered a “country of racists” in Brazil, among other places.