A Journo Is Getting Roasted For Asking French Open Champ Iga Swiatek About Her Makeup Routine

Iga Swiatek

Iga Swiatek won the French Open title this weekend, defeating Coco Gauff in two sets. In doing so, she broke Serena Williams‘ longest WTA winning streak. Swiatek has moved to the top of the rankings and is the world #1 after Ash Barty‘s shock retirement earlier this year. Huge achievements all around.

But – and I hate that I’m even writing this – a real-life, human journalist has instead decided to prove that sexism and bad taste are alive and well during Swiatek’s post-match press conference.

“One technical question and one which is not,” the reporter said. “The technical is: What is your best shot? Someone says it’s the forehand; someone says it’s the return down-the-line backhand. What do you think? This is the first question.”

OK, sure. Relevant. Contextually appropriate.

Then the reporter continued: “The second question is: Outside of the court, when you go to a party, do you use make-up? Do you like to go elegant and smart and so on?”

I can not deal with this stupidity and ignorance. How? How does this happen?

“Because many players we have seen in the past, they were staying hours in front of the mirror before going on court and using the make-up and you seem very natural like this,” the reporter continued.

Swiatek replied, “OK, thank you.”

She continued to answer the question, but I’m not going to put that here because what she does or doesn’t do with her makeup does not matter. This woman is at the top of her game, was asked a dumb question by a backward reporter and was caught off guard.

“Well, that’s – wow, I don’t have that in my PR brief, you know, so it’s hard to answer,” Swiatek added.

It’s not fair.

People (myself included) are rightfully pissed off. Sports broadcaster Catherine Whitaker posted part of the interview to Twitter, and it’s quickly gained comment and retweet steam.

A common thread in the Tweet’s responses was whether or not Rafael Nadal would get asked the same question when he plays his final tonight.

Spoiler: he won’t.

Some even suggested the reporter be banned from the WTA circuit.

https://twitter.com/jacktodd46/status/1533167919861055488

I’d be surprised if this reporter showed their face at another women’s sporting event. I wouldn’t.

Others are just downright over it.

So am I. I’m tired. I’m tired of having to explain the problem here and I’m tired of people not understanding the impact of situations like this. And I know a lot of people reading this are too.

Stop devaluing a woman’s achievements. It’s bullshit. Do better.

Chantelle Schmidt is a freelance writer. You can follow her on IG here.

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