My Olympic memory: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga tells us about his time at London 2012, where he clinched silver in the Men's doubles alongside partner Michael Llodra.
What you can feel during the Olympics is something very special. It wasn’t even like what I experience when I’m playing Davis Cup. You have even more the feeling that you belong to your country because you’re the witness of a huge craze, being next to other athletes, to all the teams, so you understand that there is something at stake for real.
It’s all the more a very unique feeling because as a kid – even before the Davis Cup got me going - I was quivering with excitement for the Olympics. I was dreaming a lot watching it! So just being able to go there, to be part of it, was something very particular for me.
I was thrilled by the atmosphere in the Olympic Village even if we (tennis players) didn’t stay that long as we moved after a couple of days to Wimbledon where we had to play the tennis tournament. In the Village I had the opportunity to meet other athletes, to meet champions I had admired since I was a kid. I’ve met Kobe Bryant for instance: for me it’s extraordinary.
For tennis players like us staying at the Olympic Village is a bit like being in Disneyland. Generally when you’re having a professional athlete’s career you’re basically a huge sports fan. You really do love sports. You’re impressed by athletes. I’m still a big kid and I was somehow a little impressed by seeing all that, all these people, all these sports.
At that particular moment, right after match point, I saw in my mind all the things that had happened between the time I was watching the Olympic Games on tv [as a child], the first time I was able to embrace all the meaning of it, and the present moment I was living. I relived all that had led me to this victory.
The moment when you’re back home with your medal is a very special one. When your friends, your family are all like, “Where’s your medal? Show us the medal!” and then you tell them how it was, what happened, the anecdotes of the week… It was great.
My medal is at home, in the safe. Sometimes when I open it and see the medal, I hold it and look at it and say to myself: “Oh my, that’s true, I have an Olympic medal, do I?!” (smile).
Frankly I think winning a medal is something apart. Thanks to it I really feel I’m bound with the sports family. When you play tennis you sometimes feel that you’re put aside… In our sport the business side has taken so much importance nowadays: there’s a lot of money involved, a lot of things, and I think that with the Olympics you go back to basics, to the game and to the sportsmanship.