Makis Chamalidis is a sports psychologist, co-author of the book Champion dans la tête. He has been supporting top athletes for more than two decades. For rfi.fr, he talks about the withdrawal of Naomi Osaka from the Roland-Garros tennis tournament. The Japanese had explained in particular not wanting to attend press conferences, to preserve her mental health.
RFI: Makis Chamalidis, are you surprised by the withdrawal of Japanese Naomi Osaka from the Roland-Garros tennis tournament?
Makis Chamalidis: Yes and no. Yes, because we are always surprised when someone whom we consider to be a strong person shows their fragility. And no, because fragility precisely gives room for force to take revenge, to restore something. […]
We all went out transformed from this confinement period. Some have left feathers there. And I think it’s even more the case for tennis players, because they have lost a lot of benchmarks. I’m not just talking about playing without an audience. This bubble costs athletes a lot of energy.
Suddenly, it allows you to ask many more questions. We have more time to think: “ What am I doing here ? » « Am I in my place? » « Does it make sense everything I do? »
It’s no wonder that at some point some people feel a bit drained and need to recharge.
Do you remember other athletes who gave up a competition in order to partially escape their media obligations, in particular?
I am thinking of the example of Marie-José Perec [ex-championne olympique française d’athlétisme, en 1992 et 1996] who left in 2000, just before the Sydney Games. She was feeling fed up, but probably for other reasons.
Still, these are very difficult times for the athlete and those around him. It also raises the question of support. Ten or twenty years ago, the management was made up of coaches. Today, we must also have within our staff people who have “soft skills” of empathy, benevolence, and who also know how to support someone who is in distress.
Naomi Osaka explains that she feels a lot of anxiety about the media. Have other athletes already expressed their discomfort, or even their discomfort, in front of microphones and cameras?
Yes, she is not the only one. There are plenty of them who have a little trouble with the eyes of others, being judged, speaking in public, not knowing what to say at such times. It is true that, twenty to thirty minutes after a performance, to be lucid about what you want to say, to have the ability to analyze what happened, it is not given at all the world. But these are also skills that need to be worked on.
Is it surprising that athletes who are accustomed, in normal times, to performing in front of thousands of spectators and hundreds of thousands (even millions) of viewers feel so uneasy in front of a hundred journalists?
I think that’s part of the job. It’s give and take. Without journalists, without the media, we cannot really exist. We would earn a lot less money too. I think that the athlete has rights and duties. And when he is uncomfortable in front of an audience or journalists, I think he has to train, position himself.
But, in the case of Naomi Osaka, I think it goes a little deeper than journalists. It is a part but it is not the essential.
Naomi Osaka believes that the mental health of athletes is not being protected enough. What do you think ?
I think it’s a good time to ask yourself these questions. ” What can we do for the athletes? » « Are they well balanced? »
But, at the same time, when we talk about a very high level, athletes are people who have decided to be on the cutting edge, to take risks. We cannot seek well-being from morning to night when we try to push our limits in an extreme way. Ultimately, I will suggest finding a little more balance in this imbalance. But to be only in the good being when one seeks high performance, it is not compatible, in my opinion.
Do you think the risks of depression and anxiety are still underestimated in the world of high performance sport?
Yes, because we have the image of the athlete or the all-powerful sportswoman. However, statistics and research show that it is not because one is a high level athlete that one is safe from a depressive state.
I will nevertheless distinguish between a depressive state, which we all know, when we are a little “down”, and a real depression, when we want to isolate ourselves, shut ourselves in at home and not see. nobody. You must also pay close attention to the vocabulary used.
In recent months, have the organizers of major sporting events tended to focus a little too much on the fight against Covid and to neglect the well-being of athletes, in your opinion?
I am not in the best position to answer this question… But I think we have to anticipate and prevent. We must not react when it is too late. Currently, there are plenty of signs that indicate that you really have to take into account what athletes go through, when they are in a bubble, when playing without an audience.
And, at the same time, I don’t want to say that they are victims. Any tennis player can say that they are taking a break to recharge their batteries and go back afterwards. Like any employee who needs to find meaning in work, in teleworking and others.
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