What tennis icon Maria Sharapova says, and does, has an impact on not only the sports world, but on her millions of her fans around the world.
What tennis icon Maria Sharapova says, and does, has an impact on not only the sports world, but on her millions of her fans around the world.
So, when Sharapova, 24, came to Japan recently to compete in the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament in Tokyo, she seemed conscious of that responsibility.
While many athletes have been scared off from visiting Japan due to the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake that crippled the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, that didn't deter Sharapova, who remained calm due to her personal connection to nuclear accidents.
"When I talked to the players, some of them were hesitant to come to Tokyo, but I was never hesitant because I knew the WTA (Women's Tennis Association) wouldn't allow us to come to a place that is dangerous and not safe," she said. "I never hesitated, because I grew up at a place close to Chernobyl. I am almost 25 years old, but I seem to be OK. So I wasn't scared."
When the Chernobyl nuclear accident hit the then Soviet Union in April 1986, Sharapova's parents were living in a town in Belarus that was roughly 130 km from the nuclear power plant. Concerned about radiation levels, her parents moved to Siberia soon after because her mother was pregnant. A year after the accident, her mother gave birth to Sharapova, who went on to win Wimbledon at age 17.
Right after the March 11 quake, a top-level athlete told reporters about her decision to skip a trip to Japan in the fall, making headlines around the world.
But Sharapova said she remained calm and refrained from making ill-informed comments because she had been hearing stories about Chernobyl from her parents since she was a child, and also because she has been serving as a U.N. goodwill ambassador and helping on Chernobyl-recovery projects.
Sharapova, an immensely popular player who has been ranked the top-earning female athlete for seven consecutive years by Forbes magazine, tells her fans around the world over Facebook about her day-to-day activities.
"I found that it's great communication with fans, and they will even know what I eat, you know," she says of the social networking site.
During her stay in Japan, Sharapova posted a message saying that her favorite thing to do in Japan is to eat shabu-shabu, and posted a picture of herself holding marbled beef with chopsticks. Immediately, she received responses from around the world asking what shabu-shabu is.
Considering Sharapova's tremendous influence on people around the world, perhaps was helping to eliminate harmful rumors concerning the safety of Japanese beef by her own example.