Everyone has a different reason for playing a sport. It can be to improve our health or to distract our minds from this stressful world we live in. Some people find so much comfort in the sport they're playing that they make it their job. Of course, playing their sport professionally gives them the opportunity to do what they love every day and make money out of it, which is great, but also gives them a platform that can be very useful to address problems in our society for example.

I chose to take Simone Biles as an example because she's someone I have a lot of respect for.
Simone was born in 1997 as the third of four children. Her mother couldn't take care of her and her siblings, so she ended up in foster care until her grandfather heard of the situation she was in and adopter her, as well as one of her siblings. At 6 years old, she tried gymnastics for the first time and was told that she was very good at it. She decided to start taking lessons, and it quickly became obvious that she was more than good, she had a real talent. Years passed by and Simone kept getting better at her sport. She quickly made a name for herself and participated in the Olympic Games. In 2016, she opened up about her ADHD after being accused of taking illicit products before her turn at the Olympic Games. The drug test results were in fact caused by her ADHD meds, that she had been taking since childhood. She later said she was not afraid to tell the world the "truth" because ADHD was "nothing to be ashamed of". I think this helped a lot of people with ADHD to feel less alone, and that's a great thing.

Later, in 2018, she spoke up about something else. She publicly accused her team's ex-doctor of sexual misconduct, along with other teammates. It was later revealed that Larry Nassar, the doctor in question, had a total count of approximately 265 victims. The fact that Simone had the courage to denounce him is something I respect a lot because she took risks for it. She could have been told she was a liar for example, which is heartbreaking but happens to a lot of women every day. She probably helped a lot of people, mostly Nassar's other victims, to feel less alone and to know that none of what happened was ever their fault -like always in sexual abuse cases. After a trial, Nassar went to jail so he couldn't continue to do what he did to Simone and so many others.

In conclusion, I think that sport is something we need in our society and that it's wonderful how it allows athletes to address important matters such as racism or abuse because it gives them a real platform. But will they always be taken seriously as the years go by ? Will this platform disappear someday ?