“I throw myself”: Yannick Noah reveals having thought of suicide

After years of silence on the subject, the testimonies of athletes on mental health recently multiplied. Yannick Noah (64) followed this new trend by engaging in an overwhelming way during the television program “Mental Health, breaking the taboo”, broadcast Tuesday evening on the M6 ​​channel.

The French tennis player, the last tricolor winner of the major Roland-Garros tournament in 1983, publicly shared the dark period he experienced after winning the Grand Colem Parisien. 42 years ago, therefore.

“It was complicated because I was a bit alone,” explained the man who converted into a singer after his career as a professional player. I was 23 and I was in great shape. My priority, since I was 12, was to win this tournament in Paris. Happiness was to win this cup. And the next day, I was lost. I didn’t know what was going on. ”

The Sedanais of birth, who had beaten the Swedish Mats wilander in three rounds (6-2 7-5 7-6) in the final at the Porte d’Auteuil, revealed that he had suicidal thoughts once this accomplishment has been made.

“All the people around me thought I was living my best life, but I wanted to send me in the air, to leave,” he said. Because once up there, I was not given the instructions for use. I was walking alone in the street in the middle of the night in Paris, I expected that there was no one, I looked at the Seine, and I said to myself: I throw myself, I can’t take it anymore.

Joakim’s father, a former NBA basketball player, finally found strength and resources to pass over these black thoughts and this mental disease. He was able to pursue his tennis player career until 1996.

The one who remains to date the only tricolor to have won a Grand Chelem tournament in the Open era, then converted to the captain of the French team, winning the Davis Cup in 2017. He will take on a similar role in September, being at the head of the European selection during the washing Cup.