Do top stars trump media power in sport?

Naomi Osaka will be a star at the Tokyo Olympics after taking time out for her mental health. Some say giving stressful press conferences a swerve was no-one else’s business, but those in the business of selling sport saw the seeds of doom in the tennis star’s stance. After all the noise, has she changed sports media for good - or for the better?

Thursday’s news that no fans will be able to attend most of the Olympic events in Tokyo when the Games begin next month was one more blow to the ill-fated Games.

Most people there were already not keen about thousands of athletes and broadcasters from 200 countries flying in during an upswing in the Covid-19 pandemic. 

But one thing they are looking forward to in Japan is their top sports star turning out for her country - world tennis number two Naomi Osaka. 

She’s currently not at Wimbledon, where the finals wrap up this weekend, because she's taking time out for her mental health. When she quit the French Open last month it made more headlines than any of the on-court action. 

It’s a decision she explained in her own words in Time magazine this week - in the form of a personal essay for the magazine’s Olympic edition. 

“This was never about the press, but rather the traditional format of the press conference. I’ll say it again for those at the back: I love the press; I do not love all press conferences. I’ve never been media-trained, so what you see is what you get. The way I see it, the reliance and respect from athlete to press is reciprocal.”

After withdrawing from obligatory post-game press French Open conferences because she said she found them stressful, she copped a lot of criticism - partly because she said she didn’t see any need to front up to people who doubt her. 

That rubbed parts of the media up the wrong way.

“What Osaka couched as support for mental health is, in fact, a grandiose gesture that suggests the 23-year-old is getting too big for her Nike Air Zoom GP Turbos,” former NZ Herald editor Gavin Ellis wrote in his weekly online comment Knightly News.

That was before Osaka withdrew from the tournament altogether citing her struggle with depression since 2018 - and then apologised for not making that clearer earlier. 

“Osaka can't expect to avoid media attention and scrutiny,” the Herald on Sunday said in an editorial. 

“But she has the right to question the interview treadmill that top players currently face, in the hope of finding some realistic middle ground,” it added. 

Would the Herald be as happy to cut Naomi Osaka the same slack if its owner had paid through the nose for the rights to put tennis on TV though? 

The French Open was exclusively live on Sky TV here - and its presenters Goran Paladin and Kirstie Stanway delivered a different verdict:

On Scoop.co.nz, Gordon Campbell pointed out that government ministers often decline requests for an interview and issue a statement instead later on.

“No Cabinet minister has ever been fined or threatened with expulsion from the executive wing for ducking a live interview, or for not holding a press conference,” Campbell said. 

Osaka expanded on this in her Time article this week: 

“In my opinion... the press-conference format itself is out of date and in great need of a refresh. I believe that we can make it better, more interesting and more enjoyable for each side. Less subject vs. object; more peer to peer.

Upon reflection, it appears to me that the majority of tennis writers do not agree. For most of them, the traditional press conference is sacred and not to be questioned. One of their main concerns was that I might set a dangerous precedent, but to my knowledge, no one in tennis has missed a press conference since. The intention was never to inspire revolt, but rather to look critically at our workplace and ask if we can do better.”

One who spends a lot of time in the workplace is Caitlin Thomspon, co-founder of tennis magazine Racquet. She’s sat through hundreds of press conferences of the kind Naomi Osaka has turned into a major issue for the sport. 

But in the end she is one elite athlete in just one highly individual sport. Will her stance really make a difference? 

“I think so because it has struck a chord with people outside the sport. She is speaking to an audience of consumers as a brand-friendly star. She is the world’s most highly-paid female influencer,” Thompson told Mediawatch. 

“Last summer she followed the lead of NBA players with the fight for racial equity. She almost forced a boycott and forced tennis authorities to reckon with it,” Thompson said.

“This will force some change in our ecosystem, hopefully for the better,” Thompson said. 

So is it a simple expression of player power over the media - and nothing much to do with press conferences and media obligations?  

“We’re seeing their ability to reach a larger group of people - and this was not the worst way that could have happened,” Thompson said. 

But most sports professionals beneath the elite status of Osaka - and their sponsors - depend upon media exposure for their income. They cannot afford to turn down the obligations to create content for media partners by missing press conferences for their own sake.

Isn’t it telling none have followed Osaka’s lead?

“Naomi Osaka wouldn’t have her platform she has if she hadn’t enjoyed enthusiastic press coverage in recent years,” said Thompson.

Aside from commercial obligations, what about the public interest and accountability? 

While major sport tournaments are licenced events  - they’re also public events of public interest.  And while most post-match press conferences don't matter much - some do. 

For instance journalists like former cyclist Paul Kimmage and David Walsh got Lance Armstrong’s denials of doping on the record in press conferences when there was no other way to get answers - and they ended up being pretty damning when the truth came out. 

2012 British Olympic champion Sir Mo Farah has also had to answer awkward press conference questions about associates of his linked to doping and unethical medical conduct. 

But at major tennis tournaments, female players are often confronted with cringe-worthy and sometimes juvenile questions about their appearance and personal lives. 

Six years ago, Eugenie Bouchard was famously asked to twirl after a third- round Australian Open win and outrage over that at the time has not stopped outrageous questions for women players. The New York Times even deployed an algorithm to prove this. 

“The press conference itself is not outdated. It is usually attended by print and digital journalists. But there’s another kind of journalist layered on to it as part of the deal with tournament organisers. They are the ones who mostly may work for a giant news outlet... but have not covered tennis before” Caitlin Thomspon, co-founder of tennis magazine Racquet told Mediawatch. 

Among these are the ones Thompson has describes as “bozos".

“The way those rooms are policed and the credentials are handed out needs to be modernised and improved,” Thompson said.

"When the tournament is big, it gets a bit 'wild west' and that's something I would like to see change," she said.