Media isn’t just an institution that does reportage; it has many roles in any functioning part of the world. In the realm of sports, media plays a crucial role in shaping the image of athletes. Sports entities are not very accessible in general, especially at a time when social media wasn’t a big thing, so it was usually the media that acted as this lens through which any normal person would look at a certain entity.

Athletes, especially those at the top of their sport, are often scrutinized for even the smallest of flaws, which then get blown out of proportion by the media. One such case was that of the 7x NASCAR World Champion Jimmie Johnson. It seems to be that being one of the most dominant drivers in NASCAR history didn’t sit well for him. This is because he couldn’t garner the popularity or face value that his predecessors enjoyed.

“Given this facade of… a duck”: Jimmie Johnson‘s struggles with the media

Jimmie Johnson had this stoic, dreadful presence on the track, but when it came to his off-track life, he didn’t enjoy the same presence. The 49-year-old had a career with success beyond human limits. Unfortunately, he never really had the media praise that it most definitely deserved, as he found himself being depicted as an “unfazed robot”—a label he believed was not only wrong but also caused hatred from fans.

Talking in a long-form interview with High Performance, Johnson talked about his genuine feelings regarding the media’s imagery problem, which he found to be wrongful. It all started when the interviewer asked, “You said there are quite a few moments that spring to mind when you think about you performing in the face of adversity; would you talk us through a couple of them?” Johnson recollected, how NASCAR had changed the car three different times, putting him on rebuild frequently, and even changing the points system a handful of times.

But it wasn’t the challenges thrown at him by NASCAR that bugged him; it was the media that he thought of as the true adversity in his life. The way the media treated him as this emotionless, stone-cold Terminator was something he thought was dishonest. And to give a reason as to why the media and many people hated him, he said, “Most people hate dominance.”

With seven championships and five consecutive titles, his dominance on the track was unparalleled at his time. He put up with everything that was thrown at him by life; he adapted to 3 different generations of cars, and increasing competition. This was a true testament to his resilience and skill. But despite this success, Johnson feels that he is still misunderstood and his journey to the top remains unheard.

In the interview, Johnson spoke candidly about the pressures and struggles of his sporting career. This false stoic image of him as opposed to his being perfectly balanced, and calm stature did not do justice to the emotional and mental strain he coped with as a driver. To which he gave the most perfect analogy, “I was um given this facade of maybe like a duck where you know you look at a duck in the water and above it looks so mellow, but down below those feet are going crazy”—implying that no one knew what was going on inside him.

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“I went from nobody to dominance”– Johnson‘s journey to the top

One more thing that Johnson felt strongly about was the unaccountability of the hardships that he had to face before reaching NASCAR. The one thing the media always missed was his humble beginnings. “I literally lived the American dream. My dad was a heavy equipment operator, my mom was a school bus driver, had zero dollars to get me to NASCAR and to Cup, and I got there and I did it. So, um, it’s just wild,” he recalled.

This image of being emotionally distant and invincible caused a huge divide between Johnson and some of his fans. As many lost the passion to support him, most people couldn’t relate with him, and when they didn’t see the struggle and the uncertainty, it got hard to root for him. And weirdly enough, this isn’t just the case with Jimmie Johnson. Historically, some legends mirror the same treatment as that of Johnson. Those names include F1 drivers Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, as well as F1 legend Michael Schumacher, who also faced such media-driven scrutiny of being too perfect and mechanical.

While Johnson may never forgive the way the media treated him, it still doesn’t take away anything from his greatness. If anything, his ability to confront this issue with such clarity and honesty only goes on to say more about his humane side. In the end, athletes like Johnson, Hamilton, and Schumacher are not just mere machines; they are athletes who experience their highs and lows, but the only difference is that they do not let it show. Their dominance may have caused resentment, but no one can dispute their iconic status in their sports.