Michał Kubiak played for the Polish national volleyball team from 2011 to 2022 and was the team captain from 2015 to 2022. He won gold medals at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in 2014 and 2018.

But apart from being one of the best volleyball players in the world Kubiak also became famous for his outbursts of anger on court and his reluctance to cooperate with journalists. Many resented his decision of not coming out to the media after Poland was defeated by France in the quarter-finals of the Tokyo Olympics.

Since the volleyball player decided to end his career with the national team in 2022 he has practically not given interviews. This month, however, he decided to make an exception for controversial podcaster Żurnalista (eng. The Journalist). Their two-hours long talk was published on 23 July.

Żurnalista (his real name is Dawid Swakowski) is a rather controversial figure. After his profile had been published by both Spider's Web and Pudelek.pl last year, uncomfortable facts about the man's life came to light. Żurnalista allegedly repeatedly evaded paying his debts and, as a result, he owes hundreds of thousands of zlotys to various companies and private individuals.

Surprisingly, this has not hindered his career as a podcaster. Spotify reports that Żurnalista's "Uncompromising Conversations" (pol. "Rozmowy bez kompromisu") was the second most listened to podcast in Poland in 2022. The name of the show can be misleading as the man tends to over-indulge his guests in his interviews. Perhaps that is why they continue to appear in his studio despite the controversy surrounding the host.

Żurnalista’s talk with Michał Kubiak isn’t going to gather positive buzz for the volleyball player even though Swakowski managed to get his guest to be open about mental problems. "Not everyone has their drawers as nicely arranged as you," stated Żurnalista. Hearing this kind of flattery, Kubiak… negated the work of sports psychologists.

When asked about the bad things that sport has taught him, Kubiak replied it was the "lack of empathy". "I don't know if it's a flaw, I know it's one of the qualities I don't have," he elaborated on the matter. He didn’t stop there, adding: "It may sound bad because I know that depression is a serious illness. But on the other hand I can't imagine that I could fall into such a state."

Kubiak also confessed that he "doesn’t show any understanding at all for such thoughts that enter his head and that he deletes such thoughts right away." He thinks "there are a million ways not to feel depressed". He also added that he "knows that it sits solely in your head and whatever happens, you're able to deal with it yourself."

At this point even the host couldn’t help not to counter his guest’s statement. Żurnalista shyly suggested that it is impossible to theorise about the disease until it has personally affected us.

The 35-year-old volleyball player agreed that perhaps indeed "depression is too drastic an example". He then went on to use "better" examples like gambling addiction and alcoholism but at the same time he stated that he has "no understanding of such behaviour."

We probably do not need to explain to anyone how detached from reality and potentially harmful such statements are. We wrote more extensively about this in our article on mental health. Paradoxically, the best commentary on the matter may be other excerpts from the same interview, where Kubiak admits that he does not fully understand how can successful athletes become celebrities or even authorities.

Professional sport requires a person to subordinate their entire life to it, especially during their teenage years when personality is being formed. It takes a special kind of doggedness to be very successful in it and, as the volleyball player himself admits, a great deal of luck.

In the interview Kubiak also admits that he has no forbearance for himself either as failures impress and inspire him much more than successes. The slogan "don't wimp out", with which his father motivated him, always rings in his head. This attitude can of course contribute to one’s objective success but in the face of failures, which happen to everyone, it will make it as difficult as possible to think well of oneself. Perhaps this is why Kubiak was unable to come out to reporters after the defeat at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Estimates say that around 1.2 million people in Poland suffer from depression. Many of them may feel affected by the volleyball player's words. For the time being, however, the storm surrounding Kubiak’s statements has been unleashed only on Twitter.

• 116 111 - Helpline for children and young people,
• 116 123 - Crisis hotline,
• 800 70 22 22 - 24-hour helpline for adults in mental health crisis,
• zwjr.pl – "Życie jest warte rozmowy" ("Life is worth a conversation") – a platform for people in crisis.