it's starting to hit me now that zverev might actually win this and nothing we can do to stop it 😔 (tbc i didn't expect rafa to win necessarily, still an amazing run for him, just zverev was so locked in today and can't deny anymore that there aren't many people left in the draw who trouble him when he shows this level)
Yeah I mean listen, despite all our wishing that is very well what might happen. Whether we like it or not, the ethical failing here is not on a top player for winning a slam but on the governing bodies which have allowed him to keep playing.
Ultimately, sports results are not beholden to morals. All we can really do is make our broader distaste known to those bodies, and lobby for change and advocacy for those abused, especially in sports spaces we have access to— and aim for that change to propagate upwards, because it starts with everyone. If it's accepted somewhere, it can be justified anywhere.
I don't love to discuss this here since I think (1) I know bringing him up is hard for some people on here and since this is a safe space I try to bring him up as minimally as possible and (2) I tend to prefer to address these types of issues offline, as personal preference.
I will say it is a bit of a hard issue advocacy-wise as well, since most non-profits and bills work around the prevention of abuse against athletes— which is an extremely prevalent and important issue, and one I do work for irl, but is handled separately from abuse accusations against player themselves, which is an internal review process at least in the ATP. In tennis, players are independent contractors with the ATP and WTA, not part of any sort of players's union. There are independent review boards internal to these organizations that elevate and review complaints (can do a post explaining the tennis bodies and how they work later if anyone is interested also).
However if you are in US and interested, there are multiple organizations that work towards addressing abuse at a broader scale in sports. In 2024 the Safer Sports for Athletes Act was passed by both survivors and advocates to help strengthen the US Center for SafeSport which tries to address sexual, physical, and emotional abuse in sport. This is a great org I highly recommend. The Assist is also another great resources focusing on sexual violence in sport and amplifying survivors' voices, esp. for women. There are also a number of regional organizations that work in these spaces, so I do recommend looking into those if comfortable. I would share mine but it's doxxing but trust many exist.
I do not currently know of any for survivors of abuse by athletes but trust that I am looking into it more and will provide if I find any.
Beyond which (and semi-relevant so I'll mention it here as an addendum), there is now a number of organizations partnering with both professional sports orgs (e.g. WTA) and the NCAA to try and help curb online abuse by bettors and others; so if that interests you to help those orgs as well, I recommend!
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