I’m scared of hurdlers” – Coco Gauff opens up about her Olympics career as Track & Field athlete Due to…
“Noah Lyles saw me as a 400m hurdler, but I’m scared of hurdlers” – Coco Gauff jokes about her ‘What If?’ Olympics career as Track & Field athlete
Coco Gauff recalled an interaction with Olympian Noah Lyles while discussing a ‘what if’ career as a track athlete. Lyles could see a 400m hurdler in the tennis star, who funnily, was scared of hurdles.
Gauff is currently competing at the National Bank Open where she is the top seed due to which she received a bye in the opening round. She kicked off her campaign with a comfortable 6-4, 6-4 win over Wang Yafan.
During the press conference, World No. 2 was asked if she felt any FOMO (fear of missing out) when she watched the track competition and thought ‘what could have been’ had she stuck with track?
The American responded that she did think about it and felt that if she had trained with dedication she could have been an Olympian. Gauff also recalled how she never went to any track practice but still managed to win all her races except for two.
“Yeah, I actually do, and I do, I mean, I do feel like I could have been, I don’t know if I would have been as good as I was in tennis in track, but I strongly feel like if I would have trained I could have been an Olympian. Track is the only sport I would say that in just because I did do well in middle school like never training, I didn’t go to one track practice, and I won all my races except two, and both were against the same girl and she was in 8th grade,” she said.
Coco Gauff also mentioned how her mother, who ran track for Florida State, felt that she could’ve been a 400-meter runner. The 20-year-old also recalled an interaction with Gold medalist sprinter Noah Lyles, who saw a 400m hurdler in the American, but Gauff joked that she was scared of hurdles so that was out of the question.
“Yeah, my mom said too, she ran track at Florida State, so she was like, I think if, you know, I think 400 would have been my race. Noah Lyles said he saw me as like a 400 hurdler, but I’m like kind of scared of hurdlers, so, yeah, I don’t think I would have been like that (laughing), but definitely 400 or longer would have been my thing,” she added.
“I talked to my dad about putting me in some local track meets in the off-season, just for the fun of it” – Coco Gauff on fulfilling her track ambitions
Continuing her thoughts, Coco Gauff also mentioned how she had asked her father to put her in some local track meets during the off-season. She said she wouldn’t train much for it but just wanted to see what time she would get.
“I do wish that, sometimes I’m like, what could have happened? I even talked to my dad about putting me in some local track meets in the off-season, just for (laughing), you know, just for the fun of it, just to see where I could go. I think I do want to do that.,” she said.
“I’d do, maybe one off-season, just run a race, it doesn’t hurt, I wouldn’t train much for it, but just to see what my time would be would be pretty cool. I never ran out of blocks before so I guess I would have to learn how to do that,” Gauff added.
Leave a Reply