Naomi Osaka said she withdrew from the French Open tennis tournament for reasons of ‘self-care’. We care not just who wins or loses but how they went about it; ideally with courage and resolve, humility and grace. We want not only to observe the drama but to know the personalities; the heroes and villains who we put on pedestals or, sometimes, in the public stocks. “What is he/she really like?” is the question I have been asked most frequently in more than 20 years of sports writing. How the great champions are built differently from the rest of us is the question I have most commonly asked myself.

Source: The Times June 04, 2021 16:03 UTC