Despite falling short of a goal she set for herself in 2024 and failing to medal in any of the three events she entered, World No.2 Coco Gauff says her first Olympic experience was nothing short of inspiring -- and has left her with a healthy dose of perspective.
Between being given the honor of being Team USA's female flagbearer at the opening ceremony, and staying in the Olympic village, Gauff found herself with the opportunity to mix and mingle with more than a few elite American athletes in Paris. In her time at the Games, she built up a rapport with track and field stars Tara Davis-Woodhall, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Sha'carri Richardson and Gabby Thomas -- one that continued even after she left France and arrived in Canada for this week's National Bank Open.
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The foursome, all of whom are between the ages of 24 and 27, each overcame mental and physical challenges in the last Olympic cycle to put themselves on the medal stand this time around -- and Gauff says she hopes to see a similar arc in her own career. As the No.2 seed at the Olympics, Gauff was upset in the third round by eventual silver medalist Donna Vekic, and lost in the second round and quarterfinals in women's and mixed doubles, respectively.
"It does inspire me, and just also it puts perspective to my age," the 20-year-old said Thursday after a 6-4, 6-4 opening win over China's Wang Yafan in Toronto. "A lot of them are 24, between 24 to 27 range ... I think I just learned to just trust in my training and trust in the journey, just with talking with them and learning about their stories.
"Sometimes when you do well young you just want everything to happen now. All of them at some point did well young, just because they're so good, but I just learned to trust the journey and trust maturity and just your game is going to reach its final form in a few years."
"I'm 20, so hopefully by, like, 24 I'm there," she added with a laugh.
Gauff already had a natural affinity for track and field. She excelled in the sport as a youngster despite "never training," she says, and her mother, Candi, excelled at the NCAA level in the sport. Noah Lyles, the 100m sprint gold medalist, even said she would thrive as a 400-meter hurdler.
But as she moves into the next phase of her own athletic career, readying to defend her US Open title later this month, Gauff says having candid conversations with athletes of different backgrounds helped her learn an important lesson about tennis.
"The thing is that, I guess, when you have success young, I think people, especially fans of the sport tend to forget you're still developing," Gauff continued. "No sport, maybe except gymnastics where you're really reaching your peak at like 20 years old, I think that's probably one of the few. This last Olympics showed us that that's also not true, with all the ages of some of the gold medalists, and obviously Simone Biles.
"I think a lot of times tennis fans kind of forget that when they see somebody do well, and they forget that that person is developing. It's great that not just me, but other girls are doing well so fast, but I think we also have to give grace on us because we're still becoming a better player. A lot of times when, in the past, when you look at reasons why some younger girls maybe don't do as well as they get older it's more mental, if anything, not because they physically can't handle it.
"I think overall I'm just trying to put that in perspective, and honestly the Olympics was a great learning experience for me, and it really showed me that perspective a lot."
