INDIAN WELLS, California, March 3 (Reuters) – Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff said they drew inspiration from American figure skater Alysa Liu’s dramatic return from burnout to Olympic gold, a comeback all the more remarkable considering how abruptly her career had seemed to end.
Liu stunned the world by retiring aged 16 after the Beijing Games in 2022 citing burnout, but returned and put on a dazzling display at the Milano Cortina Games last month to snap a 20-year Olympic medal drought for Americans in the women’s event.
“I think overall what happened in figure skating was super interesting, from a psychological point of view,” tennis world number two Swiatek told reporters ahead of the Indian Wells tournament on Tuesday.
“I saw Liu winning when actually she had some troubles, like before she was burned out and she had to stop, and now she seems like everything she does, she does to have fun and to really show her amazing skills in a way that makes her happy.
“I haven’t spoken to her … but it’s really inspiring. I’ll remember it for a long time.”
Liu returned to the ice in 2024 with more creative control, taking charge of her music choices, programmes and costumes, and went on to win the world title in Boston last year.
World number four Gauff said that although she had never experienced burnout, she could understand the pressure Liu was under having burst onto the scene herself as a 15-year-old qualifier at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships.
“I think her whole story was super inspiring and I could highly relate as someone who was very young put into a sport,” Gauff said.
“I wouldn’t say I’ve faced burnout, but there are times you’re mentally just tired of it and you feel like you’re doing stuff and you don’t know why.
“So I definitely could relate to her whole story. I was happy to see her be that voice saying the unsaid things that athletes think but are maybe scared to say.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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