These Black women athletes at the height of their careers have been vocal about mental health, public critique and other personal struggles.
Naomi Osaka - The Canadian PressPARIS — When Naomi Osaka lifts her racket on the red clay courts at Roland Garros during the Paris Olympics later this month, it'll represent more than a high-stakes competition for the tennis star.
They've all bounced back to the world's biggest stage while displaying different levels of vulnerability. Their stories, different yet similar, give viewers a unique image of Black women. “It is critically important that they’re elevated in this way," Armstrong said, “because I think it's helping people to reimagine what Black women are and who they are.”Biles withdrew from the all-around gymnastics competition at the Tokyo Games to focus on her well-being after what she described as feeling the “weight of the world” on her shoulders.
Osaka and Biles returns to the Olympics is important in creating space for women who look like them to be just as vulnerable, said Victoria Jackson, a sports historian and clinical associate professor of history at Arizona State University, while “also kind of forcing broader culture to accept" them for who they are beyond what they do in their sport.
"It feels like there should be an end point at some point. We’re still asking a lot of Black women athletes.”“Most Black women you talk to, we all feel that similar weight on our shoulders because we feel like we are the most overlooked and disrespected people in this country," said Shaneka Stanley, a senior human resources consultant based near Chicago.
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