Life lessons with Iga Świątek
Or, what I've taken from accidentally becoming a fan of the young star
We’re back!
Housekeeping notes: This Monday, paid subscribers got this month’s ET Ask Home, a monthly questionnaire.
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With that! Onto news, views, and Jews.
THE NEWS
For Haaretz, I wrote about Doug Emhoff and celebration — and criticism — of his Jewishness and interfaith marriage on the campaign trail.
For the Forward, I wrote about the dissonance that comes from seeing hostage families and segments of the Israeli public more generally blame and try to pressure Netanyahu while the Biden administration is…not doing that.
This week on the podcast, Rohan and I interviewed Rachel Rizzo about the AFD’s recent victory in Thuringia.
Friend of the newsletter Tanvi Misra has a longread on the paradox of Border Patrol being charged with rescuing and also with capturing migrants.
Roy Cohn is so central to understanding our former president so I think this interview on their relationship is worthwhile.
Central and Eastern Europe heads, it’s our time: Jancis Robinson has a column in the Financial Times about the region and its up and coming wines.
Also in the Financial Times, someone (namely, Tej Parikh) finally writes down the hard question: What is going on with India and sports?
DC…we are getting a Chai Pani!
MY VIEWS ON…
…Iga Świątek!
I’m not entirely sure how this happened, but at some point in the last couple years I became a fan of noted Polish tennis player Iga Świątek. Yes, that is a link to her Player’s Tribune essay. You can also watch this short documentary on her, as I did, if you’re so inclined.
It feels a little silly, honestly: She’s 11 years younger than I am, and also the number one player, on the women’s side, in the world. It’s not like she needs my support. And yet.
Anyway in following her, I’ve also listened to and read various interviews with her and her team, and picked up things that I am trying to apply to my own life, which I will now share with you. Is it embarrassing that I am applying things — some of which are, if I’m being honest, pretty standard athlete talk — I’ve heard from or relating to a 23 year old athlete to my own life? Yes, but not enough not to share them with you.
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The first thing, which I try to remind myself of all the time, is that she apparently just tries to focus on the next point. Are you about to win the whole thing if you can just manage to put it away? Focus on the next point. Are you losing badly? Focus on the next point. You’ve won a point before; you can win a point again. I have tried to apply this mentality to my own life when work or personal things seem overwhelming. Just focus on the next point.
The second thing is that, if you listen to her responses to various correspondents at various tournaments to how she’s going to respond to this or that, she answers, over and over again, that she’s going to try to focus on herself. I want to be careful in how I phrase this, because I don’t mean “you shouldn’t care about politics or the world!” What I mean is that freaking yourself out by comparing yourself to others or spending time and energy on what they’re doing as opposed to what you’re doing is not the best use of either. (If my mom is reading this: I know! I said I’m trying!)
The third is that emotions are to be regulated, not pushed aside. After almost losing to, and then beating, Naomi Osaka in the second round of the French Open this year, she was filmed lying down and crying. As the sports psychologist she travels with explained in an interview I can’t find right now: the surprise to that was itself surprising! Crying is normal and healthy! The important thing isn’t not to feel under pressure; it’s to channel and express those emotions in a way that’s healthy. And sometimes you’ll lose, and you’ll be upset, and the question then is how to work with that. As an, um, emotionally expressive person, this resonated with me.
And finally, after losing in the quarter finals of the US Open this Wednesday — no, she didn’t play her best; yes, I teared up after she lost because she’s very hard on herself and I was upset that she was upset, okay!? — she said at the press conference that she understands that she won’t win every time, and the goal can’t even be to win every time. But the goal is to continue to do the work, and to try to get better, and to learn from mistakes and use them to be able to do more work. And I am not a celebrity tennis player, but if that isn't the truth. The goal, and the reward, for the work is the work.
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I’m sure there are other things I’ve taken inspiration from — she lost in the semi-finals at the Olympics and was able to collect herself well enough to win bronze — but that’s mostly it. That and she is very fun to watch play.
Hopefully she does not come out with some absurd political stance after I send this. I’d have to apply an Iga life lesson to deal with the disappointment.
AND SOME STUFF ABOUT JEWS
If you’re in DC: On September 10, I’m moderating an event with the great Karolina Krasuska on her new book, Soviet Born: The Afterlives of Migration in Jewish American Fiction. Join us if you can!
You should read this profile of Carol Kane and her new role in Between the Temples and also this gorgeous essay on the same movie.
From the New York Times: “Five Palestinians were killed by an Israeli airstrike on their vehicles early Thursday, Palestinian news media said, as one of the longest and most destructive recent Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank stretched into a ninth day across several cities.”
A bus line that many in the Jewish community in London have long pushed for has been introduced and predictably got bad faith pushback.
-ET
"Iga Swiatek 2023 Cropped + Retouched" by Hameltion is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.