London Olympics 2012: The Golden Run Of Serena Williams

There are multiple achievements of Serena Williams that get a lot of mainstream attention. This includes her amazing grand slam record as well as her streak on the number one WTA spot. However, there is one aspect of her career which is relatively less talked about.

We are talking about Serena the Olympian. In the huge mass of her achievements, Serena is also a prolific performer at the Olympics. The American legend has 4 gold medals at the elite sports competition. This puts her in a list of not just the most successful tennis stars, but the most successful athletes in the world.

Let us take a close look at the Olympic records of Serena Williams.

Glory at the Olympics – The Serena Williams story

Serena’s first shot at Olympic glory came as early as the year 2000. This was the time when her sister Venus Williams was ruling the roost in women’s tennis and Serena was starting her fabulous career. At the Sydney Olympics of 2000, Serena and Venus won the first of their three doubles gold medals. In fact, Venus also went on to win the singles gold in Sydney 2000.

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Serena missed the Athens Olympics in 2004 due to injury. However, she came back in the year 2008 in Beijing. The Williams sisters again claimed the gold at the event. However, her crowning moment came at the London Olympics of 2012.

That’s when Serena bagged her long-awaited singles gold. She was coming to London after claiming her fifth Wimbledon title. Three weeks later, she began her question for Olympic glory on the same grass courts.

What followed was a domination that had never been seen before. She ran roughshod over her competition. Her campaign started with a victory over Jelena Jankovic. Serena eased past Poland’s Urszula Radwanska, Russia’s Vera Zvonareva, Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki and No 1 seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

In the finals, she faced arch-rival Maria Sharapova in a mouth-watering clash. The Russian had no answer to Serena’s onslaught. She was crushed 6-0, 6-1. Through this achievement, Serena became the fourth player after Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal and Steffi Graf to complete the career golden slam. The extent of her dominance was such that she claimed the gold without dropping a set and losing only 16 games.

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However, that wasn’t the end as she also went on to win her third doubles gold with Venus Williams. Serena couldn’t repeat the feat in Rio as she lost in the first round of doubles and third round of singles.

However, she will always be remembered as an Olympic tennis great.