Serena Williams officially announced that she is pulling out of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
The 23-time Grand Slam winner told an assemblage of international media in Wimbledon, England, that there are a variety of reasons that informed her decision to no longer participate.
“There’s a lot of reasons that I made my Olympic decision,” she said on Sunday, June 27, 2021, according to The Bleacher Report. “I don’t really want to – I don’t feel like going into them today. Maybe another day. Sorry,” Williams said. “I have not thought about it. In the past, [the Olympics] has been a wonderful place for me. I really haven’t thought about it, so I’m going to keep not thinking about it.”
Williams is at the biggest event in tennis in the United Kingdom to continue on her years-long quest to tie Margaret Court, who won a record 24 Grand Slam tournaments.
Williams did compete in Rio De Janeiro in 2016 and, to date, is one of the most decorated tennis players ever in the Olympics with four medals. The 39-year-old married mother of one trails only her sister, Venus Williams, and Britain’s Kathleen McKane Godfree, who each sport five medals, The Bleacher Report noted. By pulling out, it becomes very unlikely that Serena Williams will ever be able to match her older sister’s Olympic feats. She will be 42 years old at the next Olympic games.
The summer games, which were postponed in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, are now scheduled to take place from Friday, Jul 23, to Sunday, Aug 8, 2021.
