Tennis Players Shit-Talking Each Other After a Match is Truly What the Olympics are All About

Sure, we love to tell ourselves that every other year the world comes together in one place during the summer or winter in a spirit of harmony to get the most we can out of ourselves through athletic competition. Because we like to think that's our nature. To become the very best we can, and celebrate the best in others. And because it sounds much more idealistic than saying athletes do this to hang out with billionaires, get rich and famous, and bone people they'd otherwise never meet:

Regardless of how you try to spin this little biennial worldwide company picnic, humans are still just humans. The same resentful, bitter, catty assholes we've been since we came down out of the trees. And no soaring rhetoric from IOC officials or in ads for soft drinks is going to change our nature. And today's example comes from the noble pursuit that is women's tennis:

Source - Emma Navarro didn’t want to be on the losing end of a tight three-set match at her first Olympic Games. Losing 6-7 (7), 7-6 (4), 6-1 to China’s Qinwen Zheng in the third round Tuesday meant Navarro’s Paris 2024 singles tournament was over.

Instead of just the customary handshake after each match between opponents, Navarro took it a step further. The 23-year-old American grasped Zheng’s hand and locked eyes with her. Navarro spoke to Zheng in a tense exchange at the net, with Navarro shaking her head in frustration as the players walked to thank the chair umpire.

Navarro didn’t mince words when later asked about the conversation.

“I just told her I didn’t respect her as a competitor,” Navarro said after the match. “I think she goes about things in a pretty cut-throat way. It makes for a locker room that doesn’t have a lot of camaraderie, so it’s tough to face an opponent like that, who I really don’t respect." …

Zheng admitted that Navarro told her “she doesn’t know how I have a lot of fans.”“It looks like she’s not happy with my behavior towards her,” Zheng said.

But Zheng didn’t retaliate with criticism. Instead, Zheng said that she didn’t consider Navarro’s words “an attack” because the American lost the match.

“If she’s not happy about my behavior, she can come and tell me,” Zheng said. “I would like to correct (it) to become a better player and a better person.”

Now, if you happen to be a fan of spiteful vitriol (I'll have to raise my hand here) and are sad Zheng took the disappointing high road, take heart. There are some unconfirmed reports that she went hard in the paint toward Navarro later on:

Like the historians say sometimes when they can't confirm the accuracy of a quote, if Zheng didn't say these things, she should have. 

Still, even her passive/aggressive "she's not happy with my behavior" response is a thing of beauty. Topped only by how she doesn't consider it "an attack" because it's coming from the chick she just destroyed. The only thing more satisfying than winning at anything is winning while knowing your the loser hates your guts but was powerless to do anything to stop you. That you bought up all the real estate in their heads, and they were too obsessed with your behavior to find a way to defeat you is the most gratifying feeling in all of athletic competition. It's not enough to succeed; others must also fail, and all that. 

To the victor goes the spoils. And while I'm all about Team USA, I'm firmly on Team Zheng in this catfight:

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Tough luck, Emma Navarro. We all want to have your back because you went to France representing us and these colors don't run. But it's unAmerican to bellyache about your opponent being ruthless in pursuit of victory. Just ask anyone in France how we roll when we're taking on the world on their soil. Next time you go up against someone who's "cut throat," cut their throat first and your problems are solved.