Iga Swiatek has had enough of Robert Lewandowski memes

Robert Lewandowski is very likely the greatest Polish football (or soccer, depending on where you live) ever. He is an icon in his home country and his presence and name carry quite a bit of weight with the general public. Iga Swiatek is only 22 years old but is already a multi-time Grand Slam champion and arguably the best Polish tennis player ever.

While Iga Swiatek is a fan of Robert Lewandowski’s, the football star also appears to be a fan of Swiatek’s. He has watched her play matches and cheered her on. Swiatek has even gone up into the stands after a match to talk to him.

A photo from the meet and greet between Swiatek and Lewandowski has been turned into lots of different memes in Poland (and everywhere, of course). But the issue is that while the memes were somewhat humorous at first, they have since become very pro-Iga Swiatek and critical of Lewandowski.

Iga Swiatek irritated by Robert Lewandowski memes

This is really confusing as the two are both from the same country but play different sports and do so at a high level. When athletes come together to cheer each other on across sports lines, that is awesome. That is a thing to celebrate, not be critical of one of the players involved.

At first, Iga Swiatek was OK with the memes, before they became a bit more sinister. She told a Polish radio station in September, “I think Robert is also having fun watching these memes…I hope he doesn’t care about them, but these memes wouldn’t be created if Robert wasn’t our best athlete.”

Now, however, Swiatek has become more concerned about the “hate” that Lewandowski is getting. According to Tennis Infinity, Swiatek said, “Some memes are funny, but on the other – there are a lot of memes that praise me, but some of them create a negative connotation towards Robert Lewandowski and I don’t like it…It worries me that because of these memes with me, he gets a little hate.”

Of course, the memes, which you can easily on the internet (just go to Google and type “Iga Swiatek Robert Lewandowski memes”) are just another sign of how toxic social media can be. Wouldn’t it be nice if people could just be appreciative of both athletes who deserve praise? Maybe a trend will start where both Swiatek and Lewandowski get the respect they have earned.