Spotlight on mental health a good thing: Dabrowski
Tennis star has faced anxiety
From her vantage point inside the Olympic Village, Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski fully recognizes and appreciates the words and actions of fellow tennis player Naomi Osaka and gymnast Simone Biles that have become a hot topic in Tokyo.
Dabrowski says she, like most athletes, has been there, battling through serious mental anxieties while constantly aiming to succeed in her chosen sport.
Of course, while carving out a highly successful career primarily playing doubles, she's often resigned to the side courts away from centre stage. She feels for Osaka and Biles, whose high profile often forces them to perform “inside a box.”
On Wednesday, Dabrowski and rising young Canadian men's star Felix Auger-Aliassime suffered a first-round loss to a Greek tandem in mixed doubles, the final opportunity for Canada to have an extended run on the Olympic tennis courts. Dabrowski and partner Sharon Fichman
lost in the first round of the women's doubles, while Auger-Aliassime dropped his opening singles match.
For all that, Dabrowski wouldn't allow herself to put the weight of the world — or rather, the country — on her shoulders.
“You can't really think like that, you try not to think of outside pressure,” she said. “I don't feel like I let down Canada. I did the best I could. I showed up to play in the Olympics, but I just wasn't good enough today in my sport. We have an expression that pressure is privilege. That means that what we do matters. But outside people have no idea what goes on in an athlete's life, day in and day out. I've done that (taken on outside pressure) in the past and it's an awful feeling. We're all human. We all make mistakes.”
She has all the respect in the world for the athletes who have opened up about their issues, because it “sheds a light” on the struggles that so many face. At the most stressful moments in competition, Dabrowski says, it can be difficult to manage.
“I like that a light is being shined on that, on vulnerabilities. Sometimes, you are dealing with mental health or family issues. It can be an all encompassing thing. As athletes, we're privileged to have a platform and I really respect them for using that platform to highlight the issues. Mental health is so important, we should pay as much attention to it as our physical battles.”