TRIBUNE – January 5, 2022. Novak Djokovic joins Australia without the slightest trace of the Covid vaccine in his blood. The Australian tennis federation authorized him – on medical exemption – to participate in the first Open of the season. But once his visa was canceled at Melbourne airport, the Serbian player fell into a politico-administrative trap. Detained for five days in an airport room and scolded by the political authorities, Djokovic ended up losing his last resort before the Federal Court, then, expelled by the Minister of Immigration, he had to leave the country. A year later, this Sunday, the world number 1 returns to the final victory within the John Cain Arena, showing unfailing patience and a physique of steel. Praise of determination.
After this tenth victory of Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open, the main media French barely mention the real reasons for his exclusion from the tournament last year. Namely the refusal, by a top athlete, of a vaccination being tested, which did not prevent the transmission of a virus whose deceased victims are on average over 80 years old.
A political risk?
Today, after Djokovic’s triumph at the Australian Open this weekend, Le Figaro does not dwell on the 2022 scandal, contenting itself with evoking a “cheating”without bothering to recall the facts.
Chain of incomprehensible decisions in the administrative meanders of the State of Victoria, “form filling error” admitted by the champion on his Instagram account, politico-media relentlessness against an unvaccinated man? The Minister of Immigration, Alex Hawke then considers in an absurd way that Novak Djokovic is “capable of representing a health risk”… But what really happened?
As the first major tournament of the 2022 ATP Tour season approaches, several athletes are already benefiting from a vaccine exemption and have entered Australian territory before Novak Djokovic. Nuance of size, the Serb is likely to win the Australian Open once again: victorious three times in a row (2019, 2020 and 2021), his name appears nine times on the tournament list. A regular.
For all who promote the belief that “without a vaccine, disease and death lurk on every street corner”, the fact that a successful athlete, philanthropist moreover, being able to exonerate oneself from the covidist ideology is at the same time intolerable, unbearable and unmanageable.
Backyard Covidism
The immense champion that is Djokovic has never concealed anything on his side, faithful to his nature. Reserved, he limited himself to presenting the facts. Declared positive for SARS-CoV-2 in December 2022 following a PCR test, the tennis player is no longer affected by the vaccination obligation – at least temporarily.
Then Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison did not appreciate this exemption, yet in accordance with the perfectly consensual medical precept of natural immunity (according to Australian legislation in the matter, at the beginning of 2022, having contracted the covid exempts from vaccination for a period of six month).
Supporter and craftsman of one of the most extreme forms of covidism (endless confinements, isolation camps, strong arrests forgetful of the mask which is however useless), he orchestrates the pillorying of Djokovic. The legal attacks against the latter are increasing. In vain.
When the latter end up failing (initially, the judge of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia released Djokovic, allowing him to play in the tournament) and that the law cannot be used to legitimize arbitrariness, the banishment of the Serb is ordered with the official justification of “avoid developing anti-vaccination sentiment in the population”.
In other words, to avoid making Australians understand the complete uselessness of coercive management of the pandemic. While anyone in the know knew at the start of 2022 that the vaccine did not stop the transmission of Sars-Cov-2, and that Djokovic did not threaten anyone except the careers of the actors in this little fool’s game.
Passing shots
One year later, “the power junkie” Scott Morrison, targeted by a parliamentary inquiry and hit by an unprecedented motion of censure, has disappeared from the landscape.
On the other hand, Novak Djokovic, probably reluctantly, has become the most emblematic world celebrity of resistance to vaccine pressure. Silent but determined, implacable and sure of himself, the Serb has won much more than a tennis tournament down under.
Florian Philippot, president of the Les Patriotes party, is one of the first politicians to have congratulated the athlete on social networks. Asked by FranceEvening, it abounds: “I think he was aware that he embodied something that was beyond him: the resistance of millions of people who had no choice in their respective countries. I think he knew he embodied hope for a lot of people, and he made it kind of a moral duty.”.
Alain Houpert, Senator for Côte-d’Or and member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Les Républicains, thank you Djokovic of “the hope he gives to humanity”. The hope of never believing that everything is a foregone conclusion.
The sociologist committed to the left Laurent Mucchielli, for his part, sheds light on the situation for FranceEvening : “Tennis-wise, Djokovic wins his 22nd Grand Slam. But there is obviously also a second victory, on the politico-media level. He was one of the most famous victims of political discrimination against the unvaccinated. His 2021 and 2022 seasons have been severely affected by this. Politicians and journalists in many countries have criticized and often ridiculed him, considering that it was basically ‘good for him’. Djokovic has just given them a great lesson in integrity and courage.”
Free the word of athletes
Laurent Mucchielli returns to “The tree that hides the forest. Many tennis players at the highest level have experienced health problems and declines or even drops in performance after injections of experimental genetic anti-Covid vaccines. Some have had the courage to say so publicly (like Gael Monfils et Jérémy Chardy in France), others preferred to remain silent for fear of being stigmatized, others finally do not make the connection because, officially, there cannot be, the propaganda claiming from all the roofs and by all means that ‘the vaccine is 95% safe and effective’. The reality is quite different. It will reveal itself the day when speech can be completely freed.
As he has always done on the pitch, Novak Djokovic displays the mask of impassivity. Faced with propaganda from which the sporting world has not escaped, he has always defended himself from having wanted to embody any “antivax” ideology. His opposition to forced vaccination was first and always expressed “personally”faced with the impossibility of “continue to travel freely” and participate in the international tennis circuit.
Impossibility also proven at the time of the US Open 2022. But Djokovic will never give in to the vaccination injunction, or to the sirens of ease by obtaining, for example, with dollars, a “real false” digital certificate of vaccination .
The Temple of the Spirit
Loyalty to his promises to himself and to his convictions, authenticity: Djokovic bears the mark of the greats. He has been a follower of holistic medicine and natural dietetics for more than a decade and does not hide it. Since then, he has dominated world tennis, as he explained in 2013 in an autobiographical book, Service winner.
A discipline that ensures incredible results and is based on a deep knowledge of the body, inscribed in the philosophical traditions emblematic of our civilization: the A sound mind in a sound body of Juvénal, the body temple of the spirit of Saint Paul.
A fervor that works miracles? Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley has revealed that the Serb took the win with…a 3cm deep muscle tear in his left hamstring. “The doctors will tell you that”, he said. Far from giving up, Djokovic remained determined. “He handled it with great professionalism. He’s so focused on everything he does, every minute of every day. What he eats, what he drinks, what he does, how he does it.” This is not a first: in 2021, he had won despite an abdominal tear.
This work clearly offers an example and a sincerity in the effort capable of threatening the down-to-earth, materialistic discourse of the pharmaceutical industry. The refusal of a system, in short, with discretion and humility. To paraphrase the writer Patrick Besson, who published Djokovic, the refusal last November: “When he says ‘no’, it sounds like he’s saying it in a whisper. But a giant whisper makes a lot of noise”.
“It exudes honesty and righteousness”
Noise, the Australian spectators finally did a lot to cheer the great champion during this last edition of the Tennis Open. Despite polls published last year, which showed a majority wish to see the Serb expelled. The wind has turned. And it inspires all segments of society, all over the world.
“Djokovic is patience, consistency. It exudes honesty and righteousness. Australia, for its part, has long been in the psychosis of covid, all that to carry out a failed policy. They persevered in the error, like us, still today, with the caregivers. notes Grégory Luga, tennis teacher at Saint-Denis Union Sport (93). “Djokovic has gained enormous popularity. Other sports personalities, but also actors, singers, artists, we are still waiting for them… Djokovic, being true to himself, has won more than he has lost.”
And the future? The United States still requires proof of double vaccination against Covid when entering their territory by air, with an extension decided last Monday until May 2023. This could exclude Djokovic, for example, from the Masters 1000 d ‘Indian Wells (early March in California) and Miami (late March in Florida).
A traveler who does not forget his story
Unless the world number 1 prefers to previously play the Acapulco Open in Mexico, before taking… the bus to Florida, which would legally exempt him from any injection. Because the virus obviously only circulates through air corridors, but does not support the road! Faced with this vaccination policy, Novak could continue his odyssey.
Another notable political aspect, naturally independent of his will, of the Djokovic character: his Serbian nationality and his belonging to the Slavic world. Public opinion in his country, unsurprisingly given its past historical commitments, is largely favorable to Russia in the conflict between it and NATO, through Ukraine.
Fans posed with Djokovic’s father, apparently without his knowledge, behind a Russian flag. In his book, Service Winnerthe Serb begins by recalling the horror of the NATO bombardments on Serbia during his childhood.
To drive the point home, it was another Slav, Aryna Sabalenka, who came directly from Russia’s sphere of influence since Belarusian, who won the Australian Women’s Open.