“Realized how much baggage I had on my shoulders” - Iga Swiatek reflects on her "bittersweet" bronze medal triumph at Paris Olympics 2024
Iga Swiatek recently opened up about her mixed feelings about winning the bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. While the achievement was a historic moment for her and her country, the initial joy was tinged with a sense of what could have been.
Despite her aspiration for gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Swiatek found a different kind of joy in winning the bronze medal. The Polish star began her Olympic journey by defeating Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu 6-2, 7-5 in a first-round at Roland Garros. The top seed then cruised past France’s Diane Parry, China's Wang Xiyu, and USA's Danielle Collins (walkover) to reach the last four.
However, her journey towards the gold was halted in the semifinals by China's Zheng Qinwen 6-2, 7-5. Despite the setback, Swiatek regrouped and defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-2, 6-1 to clinch the bronze medal, becoming the first Polish athlete to win an Olympic medal in tennis.
The WTA World No. 1 is currently participating in the 2024 US Open, where she defeated Kamilla Rakhimova and Ena Shibahara in straight sets to reach the third round.
In a post-match press conference following her second-round victory, Swiatek shared her feelings about the bronze medal. The Pole admitted that the joy of winning the bronze medal was more profound after a few days of processing the match she lost.
"It was more joyful than after a couple of days of, like, still thinking about the match that I lost. So I think I kind of needed to digest that. After a while I got much more -- I was much more proud of myself. I also realized how much baggage I had on my shoulders. I'm still happy that I could finish with a medal and kind of prove to myself that I could win a medal," Iga Swiatek said (at 04:00).
Interestingly, Swiatek agreed with the sentiment that winning a bronze medal can feel better than silver because it means ending the tournament with a victory.
"It was kind of bittersweet, and I didn't understand what was going on right after I won this match. Yeah, because it doesn't happen often in tennis.I would say in a normal tournament, finishing third wouldn't be a good result for me, but the Olympics it feels a little bit different," she added (at 04:41).
The gold and silver medals were clinched by Zheng Qinwen and Croatia's Donna Vekic respectively. Zheng’s victory marked a historic moment as she became the first player from China to claim the highest honors at the Games in singles. Vekic, on the other hand, became the first Croatian ever to reach the final of the women’s singles event at the Olympics.
"If I hadn’t won the bronze, I would've cried for a week" - Iga Swiatek
Iga Swiatek shared her emotional response to missing out on the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
In a conversation with Clay magazine following her victory, Swiatek looked back on her semifinal loss, calling it one of the "hardest defeats" of her career.
"I’ve never felt like this before. Yesterday I experienced one of the hardest defeats of my career," Iga Swiatek said.
The Pole revealed that she cried for six hours after the disappointment and admitted that had she lost the bronze medal match, she might have continued crying for an entire week.
"I cried for six hours yesterday, if I hadn’t won (the bronze) I would have cried for a week. Being number one makes me feel I can handle everything, but this tournament showed me that’s not the case. This motivates me to work harder," she added.
Top seed Iga Swiatek will take on 25th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round of the US Open. The winner of the match will face either Ashlyn Krueger or 16th seed Liudmila Samsonova in the Round of 16.