Mexico City /
Andrea Jaegerformer tennis prodigy in the 1980s, a decade in which He stood out for winning a final at just 15 years old and before turning 18 he had already reached two Grand Slam finals, but during his time on the professional level revealed to have been a victim of sexual harassment on several occasions.
The one born in Chicago today is a nun and At 57 years old, he decided to give an interview to The Independent, in which he broke the silence to recount the martyrdom she experienced thanks to a staff officer of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) when she was only 15 years old.
The winner of 10 titles retired four years later with a shoulder injury that made her undergo surgery seven times, despite this she managed to surprise with her talent at the time when Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert dominated the circuit. However, she did not have a good time, because she assured that “I was harassed at least 30 times.”
“I changed in portable toilets or a bathroom to avoid commentsinterest or actions of other people. I had at least 30 incidents with a specific member of staff, physical attempts, all in the locker room very, very early in my career. That particular employee of the staff he had a big problem keeping his hands to himself. I also avoided being alone in the training rooms because he would approach me there too.”
The former American tennis player, who was characterized by jumping onto the courts with two ponytails and a hairband, was at that time the youngest to be seeded in a Grand Slam (Wimbledon 1980), a decade later Jennifer Capriati I would break this record.
In 1982 he lived another nightmare after the celebration of the WTA Championshipbecause they made her drink alcoholic beverages, which did not sit well with her.
“When we arrived, she walked me to the door and tried something on me. She was trying to kiss me. It was so bad that I went up the stairs of the house trying not to vomit so that my father would not see me.
After his retirement in 1987, Andrea Jaeger dedicated himself to helping poor children through philanthropic works; three years later she created the Silver Lining foundation to help children with cancer.
It was not until 2006 that he took the habits for the Dominican order and is a member of the Episcopal Church in Santa Rosa Beach in Florida.
In his story, he assured that on several occasions he wanted to talk about what happened to the WTA itself, but instead of receiving support, he was only the victim of several threats. After 40 years he decided to speak because today it continues to happen in any sport: “If a child is faced with similar situations, they can also keep quiet when they feel threatened. I don’t want to let him suffer any more damage“.
“I was told: ‘if you say one more word about this, we’ll make sure your sister’s scholarship to Stanford is withdrawn’. Every time I tried to defend myself, they threatened to hurt someone else.”
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