By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday December 7, 2020
Martina Navratilova, known for her activism as much as her legendary tennis these days, has penned a column to praise SI's Sportsperson of the Year Naomi Osaka for her powerful statements of equality and social justice in 2020.
“Naomi came to understand the power of fame and learned how to use it for the greater good,” Navratilova wrote. “How cool is that? She used her platform to raise awareness of violence against Black Americans by the police and others and to foster the conversation about how to combat it.”
The 18-time major singles champion says that Osaka’s powerful statement at this year’s US Open is proof that she has her heart in the right place.
“By wearing seven masks at the U.S. Open—with a new one for every round, each honor¬ing a different Black victim of police violence or a racist attack—Naomi made an extremely powerful statement,” Navratilova said. “Every time she walked out to play people were talking about which name was going to be on the mask. Breonna Taylor. Elijah McClain. Ahmaud Arbery. Trayvon Martin. George Floyd. Philando Castile. Tamir Rice.”
Osaka is the fifth tennis player to win SI’s Sportsperson of the Year Award.
"On her own, she brought so much attention to their stories," Navratilova said. "Naomi’s not someone you can dismiss as just a liberal whatever. This wasn’t political. She was humanizing the enormous problem of police violence against Black people in America. This was about fairness. This was about human rights."