And it’s not just tennis. Novak Djokovic also happens to have won the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year—yes, that’s for all sports—four times (2012, 2015, 2016, 2019).
But, as almost all sports fans and many others know, he had his visa revoked and was sent home from this year’s Australian Open, in the midst of an international brouhaha, because he wasn’t vaccinated against COVID.
The result: Rafael Nadal won the Australian that Djokovic had previously succeeded at a record nine times and was favored to win again. In so doing, Nadal broke free of the three-way tie between him, Djokovic, and Roger Federer, all of whom had won 20 Grand Slams, to win his 21st.
The assumption was immediately made that because of this, Novak would quickly fold and take the shots in order to compete in the coming Slams in France and England to catch up. Some people, reputedly close to him, even insisted they knew he would.
They were wrong.
In a recent interview with the BBC, Novak stood by his principles. Djokovic, famous for meticulous attention to his gluten-free diet and remarkably fit at 34, wasn’t taking the vaccines even if that meant he had to forego Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and other tournaments. For some strange reason, he wanted to be the master of his own body. (Maybe, he’s a secret 1990s feminist.)
The sports press—those noted “progressives” who almost uniformly praised Colin Kaepernick for “taking a knee” and did their best to ignore LeBron James’s coddling of the genocidal Chinese communists—immediately jumped all over Djokovic as if here a leper on the loose.
Said Sports Illustrated: “Novak Djokovic Is Still Making Bad Decisions.”
The Guardian chimed in: “Novak Djokovic’s propensity for self-sabotage has become a defining trait.”
Tennis World opined: “Novak Djokovic’s darkest moment.”
And, of course, our friends at The New York Times wrapped it all up for us:
“‘Because the principles of decision-making on my body are more important than any title or anything else,’ Djokovic answered. ‘I’m trying to be in tune with my body as much as I possibly can.’
“That approach has him out of tune with his sport and his times,” the NY Times concluded.
Oh, really? Tell that to the brave Canadian truckers and their supporters who are having their bank accounts frozen by a despotic leader who arrests peaceful protesters with impunity.
But it’s a safe bet the NY Times doesn’t have much sympathy for the truckers or anyone else who doesn’t toe their line.
Of course, Djokovic has more than sufficient funds to weather this, even with Justin Trudeau’s repellent confiscatory policies, although it’s been obvious for some time that the tennis star is no longer playing for the money but for his place in sports history.
In taking this vaccine stand, he is, at least for now, giving up a good deal of his chance for that history, maybe all of it, but is staking claim to another. The Serb is one of the very few sports stars to put principle over athletic glory and will ultimately, if there is any justice, be remembered for that.
At this moment, we see the reverse all around us, athletes who will be remembered for the opposite, greedily going for the gold—even switching nationalities in the process—at the Beijing Winter Games while the people of China suffer under an increasingly oppressive totalitarian regime.
“As he ambled into the pavilion Thursday surrounded by a sea of journalists,” the Associated Press reported from Dubai, “fans clapped and chanted ‘Nole,’ his nickname.
“Djokovic posed for selfies with adoring fans and set off on a guided tour of Serbia’s national pavilion at Expo 2020 days before he was due to hit the courts. The pavilion was hosting an event for his foundation, the Novak Djokovic Foundation, which promotes early childhood education in Serbia.”
Sounds like a pretty evil, selfish guy, no?
Come August, it will be interesting to see if Djokovic will be able to play in the Rogers Cup (essentially the Canadian Open), the traditional run-up to the U.S. Open, this year in Montreal for the men and Toronto for the women.
If so, perhaps some of his colleagues in medical freedom, the truckers, will be in the stands, cheering him on.
And if he wins, sticking it to those naysayers in the sports press, some of us may want to give that tournament a new secret name in honor of its victor—The Libertarian Cup.
