Iga Swiatek candidly admitted that pressure ultimately prevented her from playing her best tennis and winning the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The Polish player also admitted how a colleague from the ATP Tour helped her to cope a bit better with the pressure. Swiatek is the best player in the world right now, and it's not debatable.
We've seen her dominate on the WTA Tour for a couple of years now. While some players are close, like Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, very few would go as far as to say that they are ahead of her.
Being the best player in the world comes with a lot of pressure to deliver. Yes, you are great and better than everybody else, but nobody is perfect every day.
Some days, you simply don't have it, and when you fail at something, you're going to hear it. Swiatek certainly is hearing it quite a bit after not winning the gold medal many handed her before she even stood on the courts in Paris.
The pressure of expectations to deliver ultimately proved too much for Swiatek, and she failed. She did right the wrong a little bit by winning the bronze medal, and she had a better approach.
In fact, she took inspiration from a male colleague in that one who helped her deliver a better performance with far less pressure.
Carlos Alcaraz has made headlines several times since he became a professional for treating the sport as a game. He's just a big kid out there when he's playing tennis, enjoying every moment of the battle, and Swiatek tried to channel this in her bronze medal match.
It worked out well for her, and she might do it more often in the future because the expectations will not be going away.
"I realised that I had put on a very heavy backpack. The thought that I was playing for so many people added pressure that prevented me from playing my best tennis."
"I thought I had to play for myself and that’s how I faced the bronze match in a better way, I see Carlos enjoying himself and smiling on the court and that helps me a lot."
She's still number one and expected to deliver, so finding something to cope with pressure would benefit her. Still, Swiatek is still one of the younger players on the WTA Tour.
She's only 23, so there will be plenty of more finals she will play and certainly at least two more Olympics where she will play, so there will be more chances to win a medal.
Every event she plays and every failure she endures is just a lesson getting her closer to the best possible version of herself, and she has always underlined this. It is not a sprint but a marathon, and so far, it has gone well for her.
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