by Piers Morgan at The Daily Mail
The Tokyo Olympics haven’t even started yet, but we already have a clear Gold-medal favourite in the Attention-Seeking Brat race.
I had assumed that Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka might win this, after her fit of indignation at the French Open tournament in which she was outraged by the thought journalists might ask her any negative questions.
As Boris Becker, who won Wimbledon aged just 17, six years younger than Osaka, said this week: ‘Is that really pressure? Isn’t it pressure when you don’t have food on the table? When you’ve got to feed your family and you don’t have a job? When you have a life-changing injury? Isn’t that more pressure? You’re 23, you’re healthy, you’re wealthy, your family is good. Where is the f***ing pressure?’
Of course, having blamed her ridiculous behaviour on the grounds of mental health – the go-to excuse for so many high-profile people these days when they do something dumb – Osaka’s made a miraculous recovery from her self-induced trauma in time to take part in her country’s biggest ever sporting event.
I confidently predict Ms Osaka will be talking very happily to the media should she win Gold in front of her home fans, because the enormous increased fame and adulation it will bring her will translate into yet more millions of dollars for the world’s highest-earning female athlete.
Indeed, she has already started the self-promotion tour by being this month’s Japan Vogue cover star, in which the interviewer kindly never asked her any negative questions….
But I fear narcissist Naomi’s only going to end up with silver in the Attention-Seeking Brat competition, for we now have a comfortable new front-runner in the form of American Hammer thrower Gwen Berry.
I’ve seen some outrageous antics from athletes in my time, but Ms Berry’s narcissistic tour de force at the US Olympics trials in Oregon on Saturday takes the proverbial biscuit.
She was on the podium, having come third, when the American national anthem began playing.
Normally, this would be a moment of great pride and tearful joy for any Olympian.
But not Ms Berry.
Oh no.
This was clearly one of the worst moments of her life.
As the two other competitors who had beaten her turned respectfully to face the American flag and placed their hands on their hearts, furious Berry turned the other way, placed her hands angrily on her hips, and then held up a T-shirt proclaiming the words ‘ATHLETE ACTIVIST’ before putting it over her head.
She preened, she sulked, she sighed, she frowned, and she eye-rolled in one of the most pathetic tantrums I’ve ever seen from anyone supposedly representing their country.
Berry claimed she’d been ‘set up’ by organizers who knew she would hate standing on the podium as the Star Spangled Banner played.
‘I felt like they did it on purpose,’ she moaned.
Really, Gwen?
You think the people running a huge and very complex logistical operation like the US Olympic trials during a global pandemic had nothing better to do than secretly plot to annoy you, the third best female performer at the Hammer?
God, the mind-blowing dismissive arrogance of this statement.
No offence, but to borrow a line from Top Gun, methinks your ego’s writing cheques your body can’t cash…
Continue Reading