Coco Gauff has big plans for 2024 Paris Olympics
As Coco Gauff readies for the first Grand Slam of the year, a reminder of the Paris Olympics is never far from her.
"One of the goals I wrote down on my vision thing, vision note, in my phone, was to win a medal in the Olympics," she said Friday, two days before the Australian Open starts. "I'll be completely honest, I don't really care what event it is in. I feel like a gold, silver or bronze, whatever medal it is, is one of those things it doesn't matter. Well, it does matter. Obviously I want to win in singles. I feel like I would appreciate it just as much whether it was in singles or doubles. It's not the same to me as a Slam, I guess, in a way. I just put 'I want a medal at any of the events.'"
Gauff said that, ideally, she wants to play all of singles, doubles and mixed doubles at the Paris Games. Competition will be at Roland Garros, where Gauff was runner-up in singles and doubles at the 2022 French Open.
A run to the medal matches in all three Olympic tournaments would entail 15 matches over nine days from July 27-Aug. 4.
Gauff is ranked No. 4 in the world and first among Americans after winning her first Grand Slam singles title at September's U.S. Open. She became the first teenage American to win a Slam since the first of Serena Williams' 23 titles at the 1999 U.S. Open.
The top four American women in the WTA singles rankings after the French Open in early June qualify for the Olympics.
A nation may also enter two teams in Olympic women's doubles and one in mixed doubles (two mixed teams were allowed in previous Games). Gauff and fellow American Jessica Pegula teamed to reach the French Open final in 2022 and French Open semifinals in 2023.
Gauff played two Grand Slam mixed doubles tournaments over the last four years, both with since-retired Jack Sock.
The U.S. boasts two of the world's top six men's doubles players in Austin Krajicek (No. 1) and Rajeev Ram (No. 6). Pegula and Krajicek were U.S. Open runners-up last year.
But only one man and woman can play mixed for the U.S. in Paris.
"I honestly haven't, like, really reached out," to any men about playing Olympic mixed doubles, Gauff said. "I don't know if anyone's reached out to me, unless they've DM'd me, which I haven't seen ... I would be happy to play with whoever. I'll try my best to hold my side of the court."
No player has won an Olympic medal in all three events at the same Games since mixed doubles was re-added to the program in 2012. Venus Williams and Sock are the only Americans to play in all three events at the same Games in the modern era, doing so in 2016.
Gauff made the U.S. Olympic team for Tokyo in 2021, but announced five days before the Opening Ceremony that she had to withdraw after testing positive for COVID-19.
