Assuming the Tokyo Olympics aren't cancelled last minute, there's one athlete I'm more excited to watch compete than all the others: Naomi Osaka, who's returning to the court after a well-deserved mental health break. The tennis phenom and four-time Grand Slam champion opted out of the last two major competitions, but now she's playing on her own turf, in her homeland of Japan.
I already admired Osaka for her talent, poise and bravery in speaking publicly about mental health. I keep getting angry on her behalf when critics like Megyn Kelly, for example, call her a liar, a diva or entitled for declining a stressful post-match press conference. Watching the new Netflix docu-series about the 23-year-old tennis champ helped me get to know Osaka far better — not only as an incredible athlete, but also as a sensitive overachiever with the weight of the world on her shoulders. Naomi Osaka is a profound and intimate portrait of her singular, trailblazing journey to sports superstardom, and it made me surer than ever that we must protect her at all cost.
