Yastremska apologizes for offensive photos

Professional athletes have huge platforms and it's unrealistic to expect them to get it right every time. On Thursday, Dayana Yastremska made a big mistake.

The world No. 25 posted a series of pictures in which she painted half of her body in an effort to promote equality.

Tennis stars have been in the news a lot lately for shocking and selfish behavior. Analyst Matthew Willis poked fun at players disregarding the science behind sensible coronavirus protocols with a sad, but accurate, meme.

It's no excuse but many athletes, tennis players in particular, have little life experience outside of their sport. The pros that make it possess a tunnel vision that’s difficult for most regular people to understand. It’s the most laser-focused, often borderline delusional competitors that end up being the most successful.

Yastremska's lapse in judgement was followed by an apology in which she stated, “I am so disappointed that my message has been corrupted.”

It's bewildering that people in the Ukrainian's camp allowed her to press the post button, or even let her do the photo shoot to begin with. But there’s no sense raking a 20-year-old across the burning coals when she might not have realized what she was really doing.

This isn’t the first outrageously erroneous social media post from a professional athlete, and it won’t be the last. Given her seemingly good intentions, Yastremska might just need more history lessons than hate messages.