The famous tennis player on her marriage to Andre Agassi, daily stress, the importance of a challenge in life and charity.
Her name is the name of the best tennis player on the planet, her face is the face of the famous Longines brand, and her attitude to life can be expressed by the main word for her – “now”.
Psychologies: Your official website opens with the slogan “The time is always Now” – “Now is always the time”*. What does it mean for you to live now?
Steffi Graf: We know nothing about tomorrow and have no idea what will happen to us tomorrow. I don’t look back too often, I don’t try to interpret the past, all my priorities are in the present – what and how can I do the best right now. This is a very simple philosophy. And I also feel every moment of life as a gift, as a great treasure.
You have always had this attitude to time – it is not for nothing that you became the face of the Longines watch brand?
Sh. G .: Oh no, not always! I think it comes with age and experience. Although if you ask the refugee children that my foundation cares about, they will probably tell you that every moment of life is very precious – but that is because they have already experienced so much that not every adult has experienced.
You once said that it is “very important for you to set yourself physical challenges every day.” Does this apply to your current life outside of sports? Do you still find a new challenge every day?
Sh. G .: I am generally a very energetic person. I like to be in motion, I like to act. I still try to start the day with a 45-minute workout – running, yoga, exercise – because after it my head seems to clear up, I feel not only physical vigor, but also amazing mental clarity. I’m ready for a new day. Daily challenges are very important. And not only in terms of sports.
But for many it becomes a stress factor…
Sh. G .: Oh sure. And therefore it is very important to remember: if we want to do something, achieve something, we cannot do without a challenge – we need inspiration, internal motivation. These challenges should please us!
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Is that why you managed not to “burn out” when you were playing professional sports? After all, in those years you were constantly faced with enormous tension, competition …
Sh. G .: But I definitely burned out! It was a constant battle. I constantly thought and felt that “this is too much.” And if I went out on the court during the competition and looked pretty quiet, stable and calm, then emotions just raged inside me! If anyone had seen me off the court at that time, he would have understood at what cost this inner balance was given to me. I’m actually quite an emotional person, and everyone who worked with me at that time – coaches, coaches, my mother – could confirm this to you. It’s not an easy life for a young girl to be constantly moving around the world, constantly aiming for victory while maintaining some semblance of normalcy. It was not easy for me to find an inner balance.
Nevertheless, unlike many professional athletes, you changed your life quite easily: you got married, raise children, do charity work, collaborate with Longines… So, did you find this balance after all?
Sh. G .: Yes, I have found it now! (Laughs.)
Tell me how?
Sh. G .: I was very lucky. I met Andre at the very end of my career. It was so timely and I saw my future so clearly next to him! I saw a family, our future children. I always dreamed about it, but I could not expect that it would definitely happen to me. It was an incredible time! It was such a gift to see our children grow, to spend days with them, to work with them. And besides, it turned out that for Andre, as well as for me, the topic of charity is important, he also really wants to change something, to give children from poor families a chance for a better life. And he is very supportive of me in this work. I feel that I have received so much from life – sports victories, my family, children, the love of my husband – that I should share this with someone, help those who are less fortunate than me.
Your Children for Tomorrow Foundation funds programs for psychological and psychotherapeutic assistance to refugee children who are sent by their parents from Asia and Africa illegally to Germany alone, hoping for a better life. Why did you choose this particular area?
Sh. G .: 5 years ago I met an amazing person – Professor Riedesser (Dr. Peter Riedesser), who is working on the problem of the adaptation of these children. They spend 6-8 months on the road, the carriers often abuse them, they get sick, and often out of three or four brothers and sisters, who, for example, were sent by their parents from Pakistan or Syria, only one gets to Hamburg – and the rest die on the way. . It’s very scary. And there are many such stories. Usually the police found these children at train stations or in the port where the carriers leave them, and they were placed in foster families or in shelters. But no one, except for Professor Riedesser, by and large did not deal with the issue of their psychological adaptation. And that’s exactly what we do in our foundation.
What do you mean by adaptation?
Sh. G .: Professional psychologists and teachers work with children, helping to cope with the traumatic experience that fell to their lot, to begin to re-aware themselves as a person, to believe in their future. Many of these children have completely lost touch with the past – with their parents, homeland, brothers and sisters. They start life from scratch in a foreign country and culture. Yesterday we took pictures here at the foundation, and I noticed that all the children, regardless of age, refused to shoot with me without their psychologist – this is the only person they trust at first. Often our children finish school and then go to work as nurses or orderlies in hospitals and nursing homes. They feel that they have received so much that they must give something in return, also help someone.
How do your own children feel about this work?
Sh. G .: They are now 11 and 9 and very interested in what we are doing with Andre. But their main interest is school charity: helping the animal shelter.
Have you ever wondered what your life might have been like without tennis?
Sh. G .: Oh, no, I’m not one of those people who thinks about the meaning of life – why I’m here, why. I’m afraid I’m not very strong in philosophy. I prefer to act in the proposed circumstances. I only know what I want to do. I want to make the world a little better – for my children and for all other children. Right here, right now.
We would like to thank the Longines brand for their help in arranging the interview.
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