Evelyn Mawuli is showing workaholic Japan that taking time off ultimately helps your team.
Mawuli, who is a naturalized Japanese citizen of Ghanaian descent, is one of the faces of women’s basketball in Japan. Today, she is using her platform and influence not only to promote the domestic league, but also to normalize career breaks for reasons other than physical health.
As a member of the women’s national basketball team, the 28-year-old helped Japan secure its spot at the Paris Olympics by scoring 21 points in the team’s final qualifier against Canada last month, a standout performance that earned praise from the opposing coach.
That came just eight months after she returned to the court from what she called a “yearlong summer vacation,” which included a hiatus from the Women’s Japan Basketball League (WJBL) for the 2022-23 season. Choosing “me-time” over the Olympic qualifying campaign is a bold move for any full-time athlete, but that is exactly what Mawuli did when she prioritized her own well-being.
"For athletes, preparations begin long before the Olympics. After the Tokyo Olympics I was so exhausted, I didn’t think I could give my 100% effort to playing for my team and my country at the same time,” said Mawuli, referring to the role she played on Japan’s surprising silver medal-winning team in 2021.
“I didn’t touch the ball for six months but I don’t think of it as a setback. I started a new business and it was time to create a new me. It was beneficial for my mental health. Cutting back my training left my legs feeling quite rusty, but I think I’ve worked myself back into game shape,” she said.
Mawuli gave two reasons for launching a company during her time away: one was to follow her childhood dream of becoming a CEO, and the other to send a message to fellow athletes that they don’t have to wait until retirement to get that much-needed rest and develop skills that extend beyond the court.
The 180-centimeter power forward said she missed playing after about three months but used the opportunity to build a social circle outside of basketball.
In June 2023, Mawuli was ready to get back into action, and she joined the Kariya, Aichi Prefecture-based Denso Iris — her third WJBL team.
If there was any doubt that Mawuli would return to form after taking a step back from the game, she erased it quickly by blending in well with her new teammates right from the start of the season and helped the team win its first Empress’s Cup a few months later. In January this year, she rejoined the national team for training camp.
“Fear starts to creep in after being sidelined for so long, but I’m here now, refreshed and renewed. I’m hoping it gives other players permission to ask for time off,” she said.
Like Naomi Osaka, who withdrew from the French Open in 2021, and Simone Biles, who dropped out of the Tokyo Olympics gymnastics competition the same year, Mawuli later cited mental health as the main reason for her planned sabbatical, saying at one point that she only had “3% personal battery left” in a candid post on X.
Last year, Mawuli watched the WJBL playoffs from the stands. This year, Denso Iris finished second in the regular season standings, and the team will be counting on Mawuli when the eight-team playoffs begin on Saturday.
In the best-case scenario, Mawuli will wrap up the year with hardware from both the WJBL Finals and the Paris Olympics. She is keeping her fingers crossed that both she and her sister Stephanie, who competed on the 3x3 basketball team at the Tokyo Games, qualify for the women’s national team.
The Japan women will open their Paris Olympics schedule on July 29 with a daunting game against the U.S., which is seeking an eighth consecutive gold, in a rematch of the Tokyo Olympics final.
Mawuli’s parents — longtime NBA fans — played a big part in her journey from a local junior high school in Aichi Prefecture to the Olympics. They gave up their Ghanaian nationality and became naturalized Japanese citizens in order to give their eldest daughter a chance to play in the FIBA Asia Under-16 championship in 2009.
“I thought I was done after Tokyo but now that I’m back from my break I’m ready for another Olympics. My sister and I talk about how nice it would be if we could play together in Paris. It would be a way to honor our mother,” Mawuli said.
Having been born and raised in Japan, Mawuli has visited Ghana only three times in her life. To this day she gets questions regarding her identity, but it is not something that occupies her mind anymore. She said her homeland may be Japan, but she can see herself living in Ghana one day.
“I don’t feel like I belong to any country. I did have identity struggles growing up but times have changed and not as many people bring it up,” Mawuli said.
“I’ve been lucky enough to tour different countries as a member of the national team, and those experiences expanded my horizons and made me rethink the way I define myself. It can change from day to day and that’s okay. Basketball taught me that.”
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