Happy but worried for Emma Raducanu

[JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil]

Maybe I’m getting old and jaded but although I’m so so happy for Emma I have a sinking feeling and worry for her.

She’s the nations darling today but my experience of the British press is that she should enjoy this phase while it lasts. The minute she falters, says anything socially positive a dodgy tweet the right wing press will call her ‘woke!’, there’ll be a ‘Twitter storm!’. She’ll suddenly no longer be British she’ll be Chinese, Canadian, Romanian.

On the Guardian side they will beat people over the head with articles about her being a minority and a woman.

All this alongside tabloids trying to get dodgy ‘Pwoar! Tennis beauty!’ shots. Digging up old boyfriends from school.

I have PMT which is probably why I’m feeling like this but her rise has been so quick and stratospheric and I don’t trust our media to treat her as the incredibly talented, professional and very young woman she is.

Every single time someone does well, they are eventually torn apart.

In which case, she’ll know what’s coming and be enjoying where she is right now. The OP is patronising and assumes she has gone in to this with her eyes closed and is incapable of dealing with bad press.

@x2boys

Fgs she, s done amazing, typical mumsnet sucking the joy out of someone, s achievement 🙄

How is recognising the downside of celebrity and the horrors of online abuse sucking the joy?

It's ridiculous to suggest that being happy for her, proud, wishing her the best are mutually exclusive with hoping she can cope with being an overnight sensation.

How is her achievement diminished by acknowledging reality?

It doesn't matter if the general public forget about her a few weeks - she's made history and reportedly on course to make 100 million with all the endorsements and brand deals coming her way.

I agree that she is going to be put onto a ridiculously high pedestal, with some parts of the press frothing at the mouth to tear her down at some point.

Hopefully she has good people around who who will allow her to just concentrate on her tennis and being the best she can be, and not worry too much about the rest of it.

You write words loopy, but none of them make sense.

@BlusteryLake

I actually think the next generation like her, who have grown up with social media are much better equipped to deal with it than the previous ones.

Yeah, it looked that way at Wimbledon 😩

I hope her 'Team' have upped their game since then.

@JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil

She's young, catapulted to being in the spot light & I too, worry about her well being.

@IcedPurple

*It won't be us or the op sucking the joy out of her success at such a young age , but she will receive a lot more hatred than somebody like Boris Becker who won a major grand slam aged 17, purely because she is female and mixed heritage. Those are facts , sadly .*

They aren't 'facts'.

They're hypothetical scenarios which exist only in your head.

Boris Becker has had acres of negative press about his private life. I'm struggling to believe that ER will get similar. Tennis players in general are boring focussed people. A grinding life of practice, travel and tournaments.

I assume she has a strong team around her and her parents seem to be closely involved in her career. Hopefully other players in the circuit will give her good advice.

I’m really happy for her a such an amazing player.

@Viviennemary

Id never even heard of her till yesterday. She is a tennis player. Yes she did very well to win at such a young age. But my what ridiculous hype. I

How stupid do you have to be to think that because you haven't heard of someone they haven't made sporting history and deserve the plaudits?

Maybe Vivi hasn’t seen the stats? It’s pretty gobsmacking.

If I was her, I’d keep my own counsel, do only the interviews that I’m obligated to do (e.g. those just before and after the game), refuse point blank to discuss or comment on my private / personal life, and concentrate on playing tennis.

Boris Becker has had acres of negative press about his private life. I'm struggling to believe that ER will get similar. Tennis players in general are boring focussed people. A grinding life of practice, travel and tournaments.

Yeah, Boris was never really a tabloid target here, but in his native Germany there have been years, decades even, of tittle tattle about his rather complex private life.

Emma seeems very tough and very foccussed - she has to be - and has a great team looking out for her. I can't see her becoming tabloid fodder like Becker, though I guess who knows what the future holds? And her being mixed race and having global appeal is going to be a massive bonus for her in many ways, certainly with the extremely lucrative endorsement deals which she's going to be drowning in very soon.

@BlusteryLake

I actually think the next generation like her, who have grown up with social media are much better equipped to deal with it than the previous ones.

I agree. Despite all the vitriol directed at him on SM, Marcus Rashford seems* to be brushing it off.

*Obviously I have no idea what goes on behind his closed door.

I think she will be Ok because she is very intelligent and well aware of this. She will get the right people to help her manage the situation. She won’t let herself be distracted.
I live in Bromley and have seen Emma play at local tennis clubs for years since she was a preteen - she went to the local superselective grammar Newstead like Dina Asher Smith. They are both highly talented and super intelligent and focussed young women. I just hope people leave them alone to focus on their game/Sport. I have seen Dina AS on the train quite a lot.
Roger Federer was always able to walk the streets of Basel and Zurich with not too much hassle so let’s hope once this all calms down the same will be true for Emma R. I don’t think she will get distracted online, she isn’t the type.

She's exactly where she has worked so hard to get to surely? This isn't something weird that has suddenly been thrust upon her, this is her achieving what she set out to do. She might not have expected to do it so early in her career that's all. Both women were articulate and confident on that platform last night.

These are people who have never known a time without the internet and social media. They know the score and hopefully will have people around them who will help them navigate all the crap out there.

I agree @JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil

Believe it or not, there are already threads on Twitter comparing her to Andy Murray in a negative way because 'he made us wait for that titlle whereas she just got in and won'

To be honest, part of the problem are these statements making celebrities out to be heroes and making all sorts of unfounded statements about their character and personality. All we know is that she is an amazing sport woman. She is at the top of her profession and is great to watch. At 18, that’s all the more amazing.
But, we know nothing about her personality, so we don’t need to put her on a pedestal and make all these gushing statements about her as a person. She is human and may be an imperfect one. Humans usually are.

@RacistAngst

I agree *@JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil*

Believe it or not, there are already threads on Twitter comparing her to Andy Murray in a negative way because 'he made us wait for that titlle whereas she just got in and won'

And? You don’t have to be on Twitter. No one does. I wouldn’t have known about these comments if you hadn’t come along and announced and publicized them.

Fwiw, I suspect she is also very astute and knows the power to SM.

She apparently switched all her SM off and gave her mobile to her coach to avoid looking at ANY posts done on her during Wimbledom.
She seems very well aware how things can go down hill very qucikly.

After all as Andy Murray himself said. He is british when he wins but always scottish when he looses....

Threads like this show one thing. That people most concerned about stuff like this are the ones that perpetuate the problem the most. There have always been nutters and trolls. Those showing all this faux concern actually enjoy the entertainment the most. They dig out the comments from
Twitter and spread them around more than anyone else. Just to say ‘oh look at me, I’m so virtuous because I am so outraged’. Most of us wouldn’t even know about the trolls if it wasn’t so well publicized by the virtuous ones.

@sst1234

Threads like this show one thing. That people most concerned about stuff like this are the ones that perpetuate the problem the most. There have always been nutters and trolls. Those showing all this faux concern actually enjoy the entertainment the most. They dig out the comments from Twitter and spread them around more than anyone else. Just to say ‘oh look at me, I’m so virtuous because I am so outraged’. Most of us wouldn’t even know about the trolls if it wasn’t so well publicized by the virtuous ones.

Quite

@sst1234

Threads like this show one thing. That people most concerned about stuff like this are the ones that perpetuate the problem the most. There have always been nutters and trolls. Those showing all this faux concern actually enjoy the entertainment the most. They dig out the comments from Twitter and spread them around more than anyone else. Just to say ‘oh look at me, I’m so virtuous because I am so outraged’. Most of us wouldn’t even know about the trolls if it wasn’t so well publicized by the virtuous ones.

I agree it perpetuates it

And? You don’t have to be on Twitter. No one does. I wouldn’t have known about these comments if you hadn’t come along and announced and publicized them.

Absolutely. Anyone can post on Twitter. Why do we need to pay attention to some rant just because 'it's on Twitter'?

I'm sure Emma has pros handling her social media accounts - or if she doesn't she soon will - so won't have to deal with any potential unpleasantness herself. People seem to be going to great lengths to get all outraged on her behalf, when I doubt she's even thinking about what some anonymous idiot posted on Twitter.

I don't think you need to worry about someone you don't know too much.

She's had amazing success, she'll be incredibly wealthy; she may have to deal with the press but that's a part of being a famous professional tennis player.

Empathy is a professional sport nowadays. There are more self publicizing permanently outraged saints than trolls out there.