Published on : 04/06/2022 – 10:18
While the Roland-Garros tournament is in full swing, the former tennis player, four-time Grand Slam champion, Justine Henin, confided on Friday at the microphone of France 24 on the issue of mental health in sport, evoking the pressure that can sometimes paralyze young athletes.
“High-level sport is a difficult life, which is made up of a lot of sacrifices and which does not allow the same youth as for someone else”, confided the former world number 1 Justine Henin at the France 24 microphone. “We are under a lot of pressure but it remains our choice”, added the four-time champion of the Roland-Garros tournament, while the question of the mental health of athletes is regularly highlighted. month.
If she explains that she suffered this pressure as an athlete in the early 2000s, she regrets that today, athletes live in an “era of communication” which “asks a lot of questions”. “And the relationship to time is no longer the same. You have to react all the time, be on the ball”, she regrets.
“The question of results, from week to week, has always been present,” she continues. “But the competition is now tougher and there is less and less room for intimacy. That’s why you need a strong entourage.”
The former tennis player, godmother of a young talent program in Belgium, tries to make young athletes understand “that it is important to reserve personal time and to remain creative…”. “The important thing is to succeed in transforming this stress into a driving force”, she concludes.
