It’s an eternal debate that came to the fore after the Uvalde shooting last week in Texas. The young American Cori “Coco” Gauff, 18, who has just qualified for the final of the women’s tournament at Roland-Garros, has spoken out against gun violence. First by signing the camera (as players who win matches at Roland do regularly) with a few strong words: “Peace. End Gun Violence » (ndr: Peace. End to violence by firearms”). Then then in a press conference, where she explained that these few words came to her spontaneously when another shooting took place on Wednesday in Oklahoma and that some of her friends were on site during the shooting at school. Parkland in Florida, in 2018.
“I know the whole world is watching,” she explains. This is no doubt a problem in other parts of the world, but particularly in the United States. This is a problem that has been going on for years and now it is being talked about more and more. But for me it’s been a long time. I remember Parkland, watching it all so closely, having friends who went through it. They were lucky to get away with it. It’s all crazy. I must have been 13 or 14 at the time, but today nothing has changed”.
Far from being shy when it comes to discussing topics that go beyond tennis, the young star having for example during a “Blacks Lives Matter” march in 2020, Gauff justified herself: “Since I was little , my father told me that I could change the world with my racket. He didn’t say that thinking only about tennis. He was thinking of talking about these subjects. The first thing he said to me coming out of the court was that he was proud of me and that he loved what I had written on camera.