U.S. swimmer Simone Manuel is asking reporters to stop interviewing athletes immediately following disappointing performances. 

On July 26, the 24-year-old swimmer was the last leg during the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay which helped the U.S. earn the bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the last thing she wanted to do after her performance was answer questions, The Washington Post reported.

In 2016, Manuel won the gold medal after competing in the 100-meter freestyle event at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Despite having a record of being victorious, she said she knows what it’s like to be questioned by the media after a disappointing performance and thinks it’s a practice that needs to stop. 

“Please stop interviewing athletes right after a disappointing performance before they have any time to process anything. Trust me. They gave it their all,” the swimmer said on Twitter.

“The amount of people who say we’re just sore losers or that we are ‘obligated’ to do the interviews is problematic,” she continued.

Manuel went on to inform her followers that she enrolled in a few journalism classes while in college and is well aware of the role media plays. She wanted to make it clear that she is not attacking journalists, however, she advises that there should be training for members of the media to know “how to talk about certain topics, victories, and disappointments alike.” 

“It’s mentally and emotionally exhausting to coherently answer questions while trying to process the fact that people already saw you fall short of the goals you worked so hard for on the world’s biggest stage…as athletes, we aren’t obligated to give people all of our soul,” she added.

She ended the Twitter thread by saying “Y’all can argue here but I said what I said. Take care!”

Manuel follows Simone Biles and Raven Saunders who have also spoken up about the importance of their mental health and other athletes during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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