Pegula discusses her Olympic experience and meeting Simone Biles

Jessica Pegula at the Olympic Village, where she met Simone Biles at Paris 2024. The American No. 2 did not have a great performance in the singles and doubles draws but still enjoyed a positive experience at the Olympic Village.

The recent Canadian Open champion suffered an early defeat in singles, falling in the second round to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina. She fared no better in doubles, as she and Coco Gauff, despite being the top seeds, were also eliminated in the second round by the Czech duo of Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova.

Despite leaving the Olympics empty-handed, Pegula enjoyed her stay at the Olympic Village. In an interview with Tennis Channel, she spoke about the opportunity to meet other athletes: “We did not have time to go see anybody, but we met a lot of people at the village. Katie Ledecky was super nice. Simone, Sha'Carri Richardson was really, really sweet - super talkative and nice - so, yeah, we got to meet a few athletes.”

“And then people from totally different sports that we had no idea. We met a couple of Irish rugby players, women, that was cool. We met Ilona Maher, she was really funny. Like, such a personality - exactly like you’ve seen on her content.”

Pegula was fascinated by the athletics events in Paris and lamented on social media, even hinting at a potential career change: “Officially sad the Olympics is over,” Pegula wrote on X. “The social media content was unmatched and I want to come back in my next life as a track girl.”

Pegula seems to have moved past her disappointing Olympic results, as she is on a strong winning streak with nine consecutive victories. She won the Montreal Open and is now set to compete in the final of the Cincinnati Open. On Monday, she could become the second player to win both the Canada and Cincinnati titles in the same year, the first being Evonne Goolagong in 1973.