Osaka named Sportsperson of the year

Naomi Osaka had two missions during the 2020 US Open and she accomplished them both. She wanted to win the title, and she wanted to get people to start talking.

Osaka came to New York with seven different masks, each one bearing the name of a Black person who was killed as a result of police brutality. For her bravery, as well as her exceptional play, Osaka has been named the *Sports Illustrated* Sportsperson of the Year, alongside Lebron James, Breanna Stewart, Patrick Mahomes and Laurent Tardiff.

In New York, when Tom Rinaldi asked Osaka what message she was trying to convey with her masks, the 23-year-old responded, “What was the message that you got?”

Her SI feature story is written by none of than Martina Navratilova and the art rendering of her cover dubs her "The Activist Athlete".

"Naomi came to understand the power of fame and learned how to use it for the greater good," Navratilova wrote. "How cool is that? She used her platform to raise awareness of violence against Black Americans by the police and others and to foster the conversation about how to combat it."