"Unfair, because he's Andy Murray everyone wants to give him" - Laura Robson reveals Brit's amusing obsession with pin collection at Paris Olympics
Andy Murray is playing his last professional tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics and reportedly trying to enjoy every aspect of the sporting extravaganza. Murray's former doubles partner Laura Robson recently revealed his fascination with pin badges at the Olympic Games.
Murray has announced that he will bring the curtain down on his illustrious career after the 2024 Paris Olympics. Murray is only playing doubles in Paris this year. The Brit is amongst the most successful tennis players in Olympic history, with two singles gold medals and a mixed doubles silver medal. Murray won the silver alongside Robson at the 2012 London Olympics.
Robson is present at the 2024 Paris Olympics as a commentator and analyst. During an interview with Eurosport, she revealed one of Murray's favorite activities at any Olympic Games is to collect pin badges from athletes from as many countries as possible.
According to Robson, the three-time Grand Slam champion did not take the idea of a pin badge collection seriously at London 2012 but picked it up at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Robson went on to say that Murray tries to collect the most niche pin badge at the Olympics by finding athletes from "smaller" nations.
"He’s taking it very seriously. He didn’t do it in 2012 but then followed it up at Rio and Tokyo, he went hard. In the athlete’s village, he’s trying to find the most niche country, the smallest country," Robson said.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Murray apparently had his eye set on the pin badge of Liechtenstein. According to Robson, he tracked down cyclist Romano Puentener, the lone athlete from Liechtenstein at the Olympics, after searching the length and breadth of the Olympic village. Robson joked that Murray was showing off the Liechtenstein pin badge as if he had won a gold medal.
She added that the pin badge collection is a kind of competition between athletes at the Olympics, and Murray has an unfair advantage because everyone wants to gift him a pin badge from their country.
"His one for this week was a guy… there’s one athlete from Liechtenstein and he was searching the village, high and low, to try and find this poor man. He tracked him down, he’s got it, and it was like he had won the Olympic gold. Honestly, he came in and was showing everyone, “Look what I’ve got!" Robson added.
She continued,
"It’s a bit unfair in a way because it is a competition and because he’s Andy Murray, everyone wants to give him a pin. He’s got an unfair [advantage], it’s a little unfair!"
Andy Murray and Dan Evans progress to doubles 2R at Paris Olympics
Andy Murray has partnered with Dan Evans to play doubles at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The duo began their campaign with an enthralling first-round contest against Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel of Japan. Murray-Evans looked out of sorts in the first set and handed Nishikori-Daniel a comfortable one-set advantage.
The Brits were on the verge of losing after going down 2-4 in the second set but almost miraculously brought the score to parity to force a tiebreaker. They won the second set tiebreaker, and the match went into a 10-point super tiebreaker, where Nishikori-Daniel raced away to a 9-4 lead. Murray-Evans once again staged a comeback to save five match points and went on to win the match 2-6, 7-6 (5), 11-9.
The British duo will now face either Frenchmen Ugo Humbert and Arthur Fils or doubles specialists Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen of Belgium in the second round.