Yahoo Finance’s Reggie Wade reports details on Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open.
Video Transcript
– We’re now hearing from Nike, one of her major sponsors, with regard to that decision. Yahoo Finance’s Reggie Wade is here with more. Reggie, what’s the update?
REGGIE WADE: Yes, and like you said, completely shocking. Naomi Osaka, one of the best tennis players in the world, dropping out of the French Open, as we know she said that she would not be speaking to press during the tournament. And the tournament said that she would be fined if she continued to do this, so she decided to pull out.
And Yahoo Finance received a statement from Nike in support of Naomi. They said “our thoughts are with Naomi. We support her and recognize her courage in sharing her own mental health experience.” Nike wants to be known as a company that’s committed to mental health. Two weeks ago, Nike CEO John Donahoe wrote an op-ed on mental health that was published on Yahoo Finance, where he said he not only prioritizes his mental health, but he’s been seeing the same therapist for over 30 years. So they are firmly behind Naomi.
Naomi herself opened up on an Instagram post where she talked about her social anxiety. She said “the truth is that I’ve suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open. And in 2018, I’ve had a really hard time coping with that. Anyone that knows me knows that I’m introverted, and anyone that has seen at the tournaments will notice that I’m often wearing headphones. That helps dull my social anxiety. Though the tennis press has always been kind to me, and I want to apologize, especially to all the cool journalists who I may have hurt. I’m not a natural public speaker, and get huge waves of anxiety before I speak to the world’s media.”
So that is from Naomi Osaka. So this is pretty shocking. I remember Marshawn Lynch, he would show up to the press conferences and he took a similar stand. He said “I’m just here so I won’t get fined.” so we’ll see what this does to the tennis world going forward.