Iga Swiatek Reveals Why Her Father Wanted Her To Become Tennis Player
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Iga Swiatek is now a successful tennis player, but that might not have happened if it wasn't for her father, who guided her to the sport.
Swiatek is a former WTA World No. 1 player, currently ranked second in the world, and has five Grand Slam titles to her name. Now, it's clear that tennis was the right sport for her, but it might not have seemed so obvious when she was growing up, and her dad suggested it to her.
Swiatek's dad, Tomasz Swiatek, was a successful athlete himself. He was a rower, representing Poland even at the Olympic Games. He was part of the men's quadruple sculls, winning a gold medal at the 1987 Zagreb Summer Universiade.
At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, however, Swiatek and his team, consisting of Slawomir Cieslakowski, Andrzej Krzepinski, and Miroslaw Mruk, were not so successful. Despite winning the last race they participated in, it was only a "B Final" of the competition, placing them seventh overall.
Tomasz Swiatek used to talk to his children about his career in sports, as the WTA World No. 2 revealed during her recent appearance on the Tennis Insider Club podcast, hosted by fellow player Caroline Garcia and her fiance Borja Duran.
Swiatek admitted that her father didn't talk a lot about the sport itself, but instead, the traveling related to it, as well as the disappointments that it brought him.
"It’s a tough topic because most of the stories he tells are about traveling and seeing the world but also about disappointments."
Since he was part of a team, which he probably didn't like when looking back on his career, Tomasz Swiatek wanted his children not to be dependent on others, which is why he chose tennis as a sport for them.
"For example, he was at the Olympics, but he was in the team. They were rowing in a four-person boat. He always had to rely on somebody, that’s why he chose tennis for us."
One of those sports was also swimming, but with a smile on her face, Swiatek admitted that she was scared of water, and she was later kicked out of the team. That's one sport she feels like she would have never probably succeeded in.
"We also tried swimming, but I was scared of water. I was kicked out of the team."
Swiatek, who admitted that she had doubts after playing her first WTA event, also revealed that she probably always had the talent for tennis, even though she thinks that she would have succeeded in probably any sport.
"I mean, I don't know. That's what people say, at least. For me, it's hard to judge, but I always played with older kids. So, I guess that means something."
"I had so much energy and passion to move, that I would be good at, that's gonna sound arrogant, everything, because I kind of played soccer, and I always felt good doing anything, except for swimming."
