Coco Gauff will be in Paris later this summer to play at the Olympics, and she revealed that she badly wants a medal.
The American is currently the top-ranked player from her country and, as such, will get a chance to play at the Paris Olympics. Every athlete dreams of playing at the Olympic Games because it's the biggest stage for most athletes.
The 20-year-old is excited about the chance to play in Paris for various reasons. One is that the Games will be played on clay, a surface on which she has traditionally performed really well.
She just had a really good run at Roland Garros, so there is an expectation that she may do well at the event, which will be played on the same courts.
The other part is just trying to win a medal. Speaking with People Magazine, Gauff admitted that she wants a gold medal because whenever she sees somebody with one, she is reminded of how badly she wants one.
"Fingers crossed nothing happens to me at the last minute again! But I'm really happy to have my shot at a medal... every time I see somebody else with a gold medal, I want one so bad."
Gauff is certainly among those likely to win a medal in Paris, but obviously, everybody wants to win the gold medal. Winning the gold will be tough as long as Iga Swiatek enters the tournament, but the American has beaten the Pole before, so she can certainly do it again.
It will also be her first Olympic Games after she missed the 2020 Games in Tokyo. Gauff qualified for that event but had to withdraw ahead of it after testing positive for COVID-19. That's why she mentioned that, hopefully, nothing will go wrong this time around.