"I probably cried for like six hours yesterday”: Iga Swiatek reveals emotional rollercoaster after missing Olympic Gold

Iga Swiatek revealed that she spent six hours crying after losing in the Olympic Games semifinals. The Polish player was the top favorite in the draw but crashed out against an outstanding Zheng Qinwen, bidding farewell to the chance for gold.

After the defeat, the world No. 1 couldn't hold back her tears while being interviewed off-court. However, the next day she had a small redemption by defeating Anna Karolina Schmiedlova and winning the bronze medal, the first Olympic tennis medal in Poland's history.

The surprising loss was particularly hard to digest this time. The 4-time French Open champion had a streak of 21 consecutive wins at Stade Roland Garros and had been unstoppable during the clay swing. She had also reached the semifinals in good form and had a favorable head-to-head record against Zheng of 6-0.

However, Paris 2024 was not the occasion for Swiatek to achieve Olympic gold, and she went through a rollercoaster of emotions before competing for the bronze. She was asked how her last 24 hours had been, overcoming the defeat and quickly turning around to fight for the bronze medal: "You don’t wanna know," Swiatek laughed.

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"Well, truth be told, I don’t remember, maybe I cried like that after losing in Australia after I won my first Grand Slam. After Roland Garros that was in October, and then we started the season in Australia, I lost and I cried for like three days basically. I think if I wasn’t playing today I would cry [for] over a week. So I needed to get it together.

"I probably cried for like six hours yesterday. It was really tough. I don’t know, sometimes it feels like it’s sport and it’s tennis and usually I’m able to have the distance to all of it and just understand that it’s only one part of my life but this time it was like somebody really broke my heart, you know? So it’s crazy, honestly.”

Swiatek lost in the semifinals against Zheng by 2-6, 5-7.

"Because of the fact that I happened, I know I still have so much work to do to understand myself and what’s happening to me sometimes a little bit better. Because of the fact that I am No. 1 for such a long time and I won so many tournaments, I literally felt that I can handle everything, you know?”

"And this tournament showed me that’s still not the case. So actually, I was maybe a little bit too arrogant with myself because I thought that I’ve handled so much pressure before that I think I’m going to handle this one as well,” the 5-time Grand Slam champion added. “And now I’m motivated to work even harder and I think I’m going to have a bit more humility with everything so I think this actually can end up with me working better in the future."

"Honestly, during the competition, I wasn’t really aware that it was so much because I understood that I was stressed and I accepted that it was going to be that way. I was in Tokyo and I saw how hard it is and how different this tournament is than what I had on tour,” the world No. 1 said. “I think [the issue was] playing these few matches in a row without having a little bit of time to not really think about tennis, which I’m more used to now when we have longer 1000 tournaments and Grand Slams," she explained.

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Swiatek mentioned that it affected her knowing she was playing for her country and not just for herself: "This plus the fact that I actually realised yesterday that I wasn’t really playing for myself, I was more playing for everybody else, for the country, for my team, for everybody that hoped that I’m going to win a medal and probably win a gold medal.”

“I think I talked about it, I tried to work through it but I wasn’t quite aware of how deep it was in me and how much of a baggage that was,” Swiatek said. “So I only realised that after I lost and honestly I know I haven’t been playing my A-game here probably, I wasn’t feeling like I can move really naturally and in a way that I am used to, especially on clay."

Swiatek won her fourth French Open title less than two months ago.

The Pole spoke about the emotional rollercoaster she felt from the semifinal loss to the bronze medal win: "When I sat down after the match I was really confused because I still feel like I lost yesterday and it was a huge loss but on the other hand I won today and it was tough as well so I should be proud of that."

"There’s a lot of mixed emotions and still is. I think I’m going to have a few days of negative emotions from yesterday and then they’re going to pass and I’m going to remember winning the bronze medal - I hope so, I guess."

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Swiatek is now preparing for a demanding hard-court swing. She decided to take a short break and withdrew from the Canadian Open, which starts on Monday, August 5. However, she returns to the court the following week at the Cincinnati Open. All this as she prepares for the fourt Grand Slam of the year at the US Open by the end of the month.

Regarding how to handle the pressure on big stages and enjoy more on the court, Swiatek mentioned she has been inspired by one of her male colleagues: "I actually am watching Carlos Alcaraz and I can see he’s enjoying every minute of it and he’s a great example actually of how to handle all of that well," she added.