Legendary American Venus Williams said this week she intends to make the US team for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, which at age 40 would mark her sixth Olympic appearance.
Williams, speaking Wednesday in Washington, where she is playing World Team Tennis, admitted she may face an uphill battle but nonethless said she is prioritizing it.
“It’s my goal to take up another Olympic spot,” she said. “And it’s not a given. I have had a lot of tremendous opportunities at the Olympics. No one gives you anything. You go and you take it. It’s such a beautiful experience.
“I hope, God willing, I will be there and it will be another climax in my career.”
Williams, 38, has played in every Olympics since Sydney 2000, winning four gold medals and adding a silver. She won three of those golds in doubles with sister Serena Williams, doing so in 2000, 2008 and 2012. She won singles gold in 2000, beating Monica Seles in the semifinals and Elena Dementieva in the gold medal match.
She won her most recent medal in mixed doubles in Rio de Janeiro, teaming with Rajeev Ram to win silver behind fellow Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock. Her five Olympic medals are tied with Kathleen McKane Godfree for most all-time; her four gold are tied with Serena for most ever.
Venus Williams has long called the Olympics a particularly special event for her, and said in recent years that she intends to play until Tokyo. She said in November that she was “trying to stick around” for 2020, backing up comments made in late 2016 that she was “targeting the next Olympics.”
She had an exceptional 2017, defying time to reach the final at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon; she also was the runner-up in Stanford and at the tour finals. She had struggled in 2018, however, winning just two grand slam matches so far.
Still, she reached the Indian Wells semifinals and Miami quarterfinals, and her present rank of No. 14 makes her the highest ranked player older than 30.
