In recent months many tennis stars have expressed their disappreciation for the Olympic Games. Many athletes have even gone as far as withdrawing completely in order to focus on the normal tour events. Following Coco Vandeweghe’s impressive top-ten scalp over Agnieszka Radwanska in Birmingham, she spoke openly about her recent grass court success and the upcoming Olympic Games. Her opinion differed dramatically to the likes of Feliciano Lopez, Dominic Thiem and many more.
Coco Vandeweghe Opens Up About Olympics “Heartbreak”
The big serving American was in great spirits after one of her best victories in 2016, but was brutally honest when conveying the “heartbreaking” feeling at missing out on Rio Olympics qualification.
“I was kind of dealing with a major letdown that I didn’t make the Olympics team. That was one of my biggest goals so it was definitely a hard moment for me that I really internalized. I didn’t talk to anyone on my team. It was just kind of a disappointing moment for myself, heartbreaking moment for myself.”
A reporter later reverted back to question Coco Vandeweghe’s initial reaction to not getting her place on the plane and the American expanded further.
“So I’m number five American. I was kind of very close to the other two of Madison Keys and Sloane Stephens, so it was kind of trying to make headwind into the point deficit that I was dealing. Sometimes it wasn’t much – other weeks it was. It was kind of always inching closer to that. But it’s hard to describe what type of feeling I had besides heartbreaking. I mean, to put it in perspective, my goal from the moment I started playing a sport – any sport – was to be an Olympian, because my mom was an Olympian. An Olympic athlete is the creme de la creme of what they do.”
Vandeweghe then put forward her opinion of where an Olympic medal of any kind ranked in comparison to winning a Grand Slam event.
“So for me, to win a gold medal, to win any medal would be leaps and bounds ahead of Grand Slams for me, because that is always something I have aspired to.”
The opinionated American shed some light on the enormity of an Olympic-winning performance through explaining her experiences from a gala dinner featuring many Olympic medalists. Vandeweghe initially spoke about how prominent women’s tennis is as a sport before exclaiming how powerful the women’s game is globally.
“If you probably walked up to anyone in the street and said, name me three women athletes, they would probably name tennis players. It’s just we are the biggest sport to play. But for me, I was in awe of them [at the gala dinner] because I want what you have. So to kind of put that perspective on that was my feeling of what an Olympian is. That’s what I was dealing with in the heartbreak moment.”
Coco Vandeweghe should have other opportunities to make a name for herself on the Olympics centre circle. For now though, she will have to soldier on after one of the toughest disappointments in her young career.
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