Hate on the internet is also everyday life for many athletes. Basketball player Akeem Vargas from the MLP Academics Heidelberg speaks publicly about what is written about him: “Vargas is a complete wanker. How can you be such a son of a bitch? Who plays like that? Why is the bastard still on the field? Who would sign a contract?”
Such hateful comments are just the beginning. One level higher is what experts call hate speech. In other words, comments that deliberately insult, belittle and exclude people. And that’s just because they belong to a certain group. For example, based on their skin color, origin or gender.
Hate speech does something to those affected
Akeem Vargas has had to experience that too: “One of the comments I had during a game was: What is that n**** actually doing on the field? Put him back in the cage!” It is no longer news that inhibitions on the Internet fall much more quickly. It still does something to those affected.
Another example: football. Saskia Matheis, a Bundesliga player at Werder Bremen, often hears the sentence: “Women can’t play football”: “That’s the saying that I think can be found under every post. No matter what platform it’s posted from. As soon as it somehow… “The content is a bit about women’s football, but of course there are comments from some corners that criticize women’s football or women in football.”
Anyone who uses social media makes themselves vulnerable. Vulnerable to people who are looking for an outlet for their hatred and frustration. When Saskia Mattheis was affected for the first time, she was speechless: “I had to swallow a little bit.”
Now, when she reads such comments directed at herself for the first time, the impact hits her in a different way. “Of course you’ve seen that again and again in other posts and I didn’t think it was cool, but when it really affects you, then that’s another way in which you have to process it.”
Deleting apps is a form of coping
But how? That is the question. One possibility would be to delete the apps and leave Instagram, Facebook and Co.
“Whether it’s cyberbullying or hate attacks on the Internet, if you don’t participate on this platform, then the message won’t reach you. No matter whether you’re a school child or a growing athlete or a professional athlete, if you don’t want to hear something, then delete it the app,” says basketball player Akeem Vargas.
But for many athletes this is not an option at all, as they also offer the important opportunity for many to increase awareness, market themselves and create proximity to fans. In many sports this is also financially important.
That’s why it’s even more important to train how to handle them correctly at an early stage. “Athletes are now learning when they are on social media that they can of course have little influence on statements or writings. That means they have to learn very early on that this has nothing to do with them in the first place, but with everyone freedom of expression has something to say democratically,” says sports psychologist René Paasch, for whom the use of social media has now become part of his work with athletes.
“But of course the athlete also learns to deal with these adversities, defamations, these difficult situations and that is where he has the greatest resources. But as soon as he deals with the statements, it can really happen that self-doubt arises. Emotional stress and that Mental illnesses can even arise.”
Hate speech is a topic in youth training centers
Cyberbullying and hate speech have also been an issue early on in the youth performance centers of professional clubs. Despite all the support from the association, you still need concrete ways of dealing with people when you are affected by hatred and agitation.
“You shouldn’t pay too much attention to the person who does something like that,” advises sports psychologist René Paasch. “Because wherever there is pressure, there is always counter-pressure. This means that the more I address it, the more the person will continue. But you also have to say that the more life experience you have, the better you are at dealing with such things also deal with it.”
Vargas is not a fan of legal action
For basketball player Akeem Vargas, that’s not an option: “I’m less of a fan of believing that the legal action has any purpose. I believe that, on the one hand, you need thick skin as a professional athlete for sporting achievements and ups and downs and mental ones Strength.”
Footballer Saskia Matheis does not hold this opinion. She would take legal action at any time: “Because human hostility or targeted malice – that doesn’t belong anywhere and that’s why I think it’s extremely important that we don’t accept that as normal, but that we make the issue visible. That we talk about it, find solutions point out, find and even these cowardly perpetrators behind these fake accounts without profile pictures, maybe at some point they’ll realize that what they’re doing isn’t really that cool or funny.”