Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal this week from the French Open stunned tennis. But her decision was also a potent example of a movement among elite athletes to challenge the age-old notion that they are, and must be, as peerless in mind as they are in body, untroubled by the scourge of mental illness.
Ms. Osaka, the highest-paid female athlete in the world, who said she had faced “long bouts of depression” since she won the United States Open in 2018, was only the latest addition to the fast-expanding roster of renowned players across sports who have spoken out about mental health.