PARIS — When Coco Gauff caught COVID days before she was supposed to leave to compete in the Tokyo Olympics , she was understandably upset. For maybe 24 hours.
Then the 20-year-old, a bright young star whose age belies her maturity, saw the big picture.
“(Competing) in the Olympics has always been up there with winning a Grand Slam, like top goals,” Gauff told USA TODAY Sports this summer. “But there were bigger issues going on than me missing (the Olympics). It’s a great event, but there were people dying.”
Delaying her Olympic dream didn’t mean it would be denied all together, Gauff thought. Paris would still be there in three years.
It is. And now, so is she.
She'll arrive in a big way, too, as a flag bearer for the U.S. in Friday's opening ceremony .
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Gauff, who won the 2023 U.S. Open and advanced to the fourth round of Wimbledon, where she was upset by fellow American Olympian Emma Navarro , represents one of the Americans with a chance to medal in both singles and doubles tennis. Gauff will be joined in Paris by fellow Americans Jessica Pegula (her doubles partner), Danielle Collins and Navarro, among others.
Tennis Olympic spots are determined by rankings, not a do-or-die competition, like swimming or track trials. So when Gauff qualified for the 2024 Paris Games , she wasn’t surprised. Still, she got “super excited” when she received her official nomination letter, calling it "an honor" to represent her country during a competition that seemingly everyone tunes into.
There are other benefits to the fact that Gauff had to wait three years before making her Olympic debut. She has two Grand Slam titles under her belt now — besides the 2023 U.S. Open, Gauff and doubles partner Katerina Siniakova won the 2024 French Open in May — and tons of big-match experience. That has helped her better understand how to juggle so many expectations. She’s not afraid now to speak up and tell coaches she needs a lighter workout, or a day off, if she’s mentally or physically drained.
“I learned in the past that they always tell you to go on the day you want to, and that’s true,” she said days before Wimbledon started. “But also, it’s important to listen to yourself because it does catch up to you. These tournaments are so intense.”
Pegula, who is close with Gauff on and off the court, is headed to her second Olympics and excited to see the Games through Gauff’s eyes, especially after Gauff’s Tokyo heartbreak.
“We’ve obviously spent a lot of time together the last few years, she’s really matured and embraced her star power,” Pegula said. “It’s really cool to share this moment with her, and coming from Tokyo and what happened, to be able to turn that around with such a special honor (as flag bearer), it’s a really cool story.”
Coco Gauff and her place in the women's sports boom
Gauff is especially excited to play on the Olympics stage at a time when investment and engagement in women’s sports is booming, a trend she attributes at least partially to the exponential growth of women’s basketball, which she said is “beneficial for all of us.” She thinks fans have valued women’s sports as a whole for awhile, but big businesses getting on board the last few years has made a difference.
“I think a lot of it just comes from people, not fans per se but companies and networks investing in (us) more because they realize finally — there are storylines, heroes, villains,” she said. “That’s just sports, men and women. There’s always going to be a team that people love and a team that people hate.”
Gauff is one of the highest-paid athletes in the world and hopes that soon, more female athletes join her on that list. She emphasized that women athletes have been deserving of increased coverage and investment for years, arguing that there are “more sides to woman than maybe some of the men,” a nod to her and other female athletes’ interests outside of their sport, which gives them cross-cultural appeal.
Gauff, for example, has deals with Ray Ban and UPS. A special anime-themed delivery box was made specifically for her partnership with the Atlanta-based brand, as Gauff is an anime addict (and an Atlanta native). She watches anime before and after matches, saying it “reminds me of childhood … it’s like a comfort show.”
She’s also been outspoken about political issues, waving away concerns that doing so could turn off some fans.
The next step for women’s sports to take, she said, involves increased visibility. This matters to her not just as an athlete but a viewer.
Over the last few years, Gauff has become something of a women’s basketball junkie, falling hard for the game during March Madness and following those stars into the WNBA. (She and LA Sparks forward Cameron Brink, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, share a sponsor in New Balance and have exchanged pleasantries via social media. Brink has even dressed in tennis whites for her pregame tunnel walks in a nod to Gauff, saying, “ I wanna be like Coco .”)
Gauff's been frustrated that despite purchasing WNBA League Pass, streaming games online has been a challenge, especially if she’s in Europe during the WTA tour.
“I think the next big thing will be getting as many games as possible on TV, on prime networks, during prime time,” Gauff said, adding that this surge in women’s sports popularity could help sports like women’s soccer and hoops get the same type of visibility as women’s tennis, which benefits from playing at the same time and place as men’s tennis.
“I don’t think the product needs to change: They’re all entertaining, they’re all talented. I just think accessible viewership can help.”
In Paris, she hopes to catch a few other sports between tennis matches, including gymnastics and four-time gold medalist Simone Biles . If she didn’t have to leave Paris early to prep for the hardcourt season, she’d absolutely be in the stands during track and field. (Tennis medal matches wrap up on Aug. 4, and track runs until Aug. 11.) In another life, Gauff might have been an 800- or 400-meter runner, a sport she enjoyed and excelled at in her youth, though she drew the line at the prospect of running the 400-meter hurdles.
"I'm scared of the hurdles," she said, laughing. "I would totally disappoint people."
She’ll settle instead for a medal or two from tennis, her other love — the one that made her wait for the Olympics, though she’s determined to prove it was well worth it.
Email Lindsay Schnell at lschnell@usatoday.com and follow her on social media @Lindsay_Schnell
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Exclusive: Tennis star Coco Gauff opens up on what her Olympic debut at Paris Games means
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