Precious Medals

Nadal  has hopes for a golden July as he has aspirations to regain the Wimbledon title and successfully defend his Olympic gold medal. Which is a feat that has never been accomplished. This begs the question will this year Wimbledon's Champion be the favorite for the Olympics? 

“Sometimes, with stars in sport, what happens is that people around you are telling you everything you’re doing is great. Well, even stars are not doing everything great, doing bad things, so the most important thing is to have people around you who really love you, who are not afraid of telling you the truth, who don’t lie if you’re doing something bad or wrong. And my family do that for me.”

The importance of his family in keeping him grounded.

“To me, it’s special, different,” he says. “It’s true we have a fantastic tour, with all the facilities, all the money but the Olympics is the real spirit of sport. 

 “In the Games, you see a lot of sports that work really hard for that one event. It’s unbelievable; they are not winning money, they are just doing it for passion and for the personal satisfaction. And in my opinion that is what sport really is. It’s the spirit of sacrifice.” 

“No question about that. Everyone’s free to decide what is better for him but I think if you go to the Olympics, you have to stay in the village. If you’re not there, then somehow it’s as if you’re playing a normal tournament — and the Olympics is not a normal tournament. The experience of the Games is the village.” 

I love the fact that he totally gets what the Olympics are totally about and supports them.  He knows the Olympics are different experience then every week on tour. Even though the tennis will be held at the All England Club it will have a different feel to it then Wimbledon.

“I was No1 before for three years and for me it would make me more happy to win, for example, Wimbledon or the Australian Open, than to be No 1. It’s a different feeling for me today; my priority now is, one, to be healthy and, two, to be a better player than I was last year. If, as a result, that gives me the No 1 spot back, then great but the important thing is to be competitive in the biggest events.”

I think this result before ranking philosophy is good because without results you cannot achieve high rankings. 

“I think he deserves it because he’s been so solid for the last few years. And he’s a a fantastic guy who I like a lot. You put too much pressure on him. Let him keep doing it his way, he’s doing great. He will win that grand slam.”

His thoughts on the British media and Andy Murray. I agree Rafa.

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