Naomi Osaka, world number 2 in the table of the Association of tennis players, and the highest paid female athlete in the world, withdrew on Monday, May 31, from the Roland-Garros tournament. A decision made for ” to protect yourself “ and “Preserve [sa] Mental Health “, according to the 23-year-old, who said to have already been confronted with “Long bouts of depression” since she won the US Open in 2018. Without going back to the controversy generated by this withdrawal as well as the player’s refusal to attend the press conferences, Elise Anckaert, clinical psychologist and sports psychologist at the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP) recalls that a high-level athlete faces a burden of enormous work and constant demands to exceed one’s limits. Interview.
What do you think top athletes should protect themselves from in order to preserve their psychological well-being?
Athletes are personalities who give their all. They are in search of perfection. Their daily life is made up of an enormous workload, a total commitment, emotional or physical. The fear of failure, the fear of disappointing, the apprehension of not being perfect or not meeting expectations… it costs, emotionally. The more they get to a very high level, the higher the stakes. They are not given the right to make mistakes. They themselves do not agree, and neither do their entourage. They must therefore protect themselves from all distractions that could take them out of their zone of concentration and optimal performance, in order to help them preserve their psychological integrity.
There is something as surprising as it is recurring: in turn, athletes are worshiped and idealized, then, can be denigrated, without transition or notice, it switches, from one extreme to the other. A right of judgment is granted on their quality of competition, on what they could say or do. On the contrary, we must recognize their right to be both very gifted and vectors of beauty, passion and strong emotions, but also the right to an emotional and personal life of their own. It is a reconsideration that is as necessary as it is essential to protect them. It’s still crazy to expect so much, to derive so much pleasure from their performances, and at the same time, to be hyper demanding as if the athlete had to Something. It is not infallible. The side ” public figure “ makes the average citizen completely forget that in fact, these are human beings who are confronted with high demands, with significant emotional charges and pressures.
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