The four-time major winner Naomi Osaka is off the majors tour this year, but she’s been making the rounds speaking about mental health. In a US OPEN MENTAL HEALTH FORUM with U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Hallegere Murthy and Olympic swimming icon Michael Phelps, she spoke about the growing crisis, among her fellow athletes and in general, among teens.
“This is a room where I shed many tears,” she shared with a crowded gathering of international press and forum participants at the Billi Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows NY. Flanked by the surgeon general and Phelps, she bore her soul, describing her own struggles and efforts to reach out to others both personally and on social media.
“Most people don’t realize the tremendous pressure we feel as athletes to just suck it up when we’re feeling down. It’s especially hard to open up when you know there are so many eyes up on you.”
For Michael Phelps, the curtain began to fall on him emotionally when he stopped competing.” I felt that my life had ended. And then came COVID. Ironically, he began finding strength in the very thing he has been most critical of, social media. “I started reaching out to friends and forming chat groups. I began to realize that there was the entire community out there that would support me I just had to reach out to them.”
Osaka said the hardest part for her was stepping away from professional tennis to become a full-time mom. “You get confronted with real sense of loneliness. People see that there’s just me out there, but really, there’s a whole team. You get a real sense of isolation when suddenly they aren’t around you and you’re left on your own.”
To compensate, Osaka has been embarking on a rigorous training program and preparing for a comeback next year in Australia.
“I’m really excited about the prospects. I’m not going to make any predictions; I’m just going to ease into it.
“My biggest priority right now is my daughter. I can’t wait until she gets old enough to realize that her mom is out there competing and that she’ll be proud of me.”