In July and August 1996, the world sent its finest athletes to Atlanta. Some athletes came as familiar names from familiar nations. Others had toiled in obscurity. Each came proudly to Atlanta, and Atlanta received them in the same manner. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of those Summer Games, the AJC offers 20 memorable athletes and performances.
The 13th in the series: Andre Agassi wins a gold medal and draws from his experience afterward in his legendary tennis career.
Andre Agassi would use a lesson learned while winning a gold medal in men’s tennis at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta throughout a career that made him one of the greatest players in the sport’s history: eight major titles — including the career Grand Slam — and more than $30 million in prize money.
That lesson: “When I committed to just working, turning a marathon into a sprint, raising the stakes from the first point … It becomes a relentless gravity on your opponent that they feel like they can’t overcome.”
Agassi took all of the drama out of the match in front of more than 12,000 people at Stone Mountain Tennis Center, rolling Spain’s Sergi Bruguera 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.
Drawing from that experience, Agassi would go on to win three of his four Australian Open titles (2000, 2001 and 2003), a French Open (1999) and a second U.S. Open (1999).
Once known for his big hair and colorful outfits, Agassi soon became known as a tenacious competitor, a human backboard who would take lessons learned in relentless training to matches so that he could chase down every shot no matter the odds of a solid return.
“I recalled on that match many times throughout my career as a clear indication of the things that we were always trying to remind ourselves of,” he said. “You are trying to get yourself to pay that ultimate price so that the rest becomes easy. In that match, a clear example of how good it can feel if you pay that price.”
While the gold-medal match taught him a lesson that he carried throughout his career, Agassi still carries a memory of something that happened before the match.
The week of the match, Agassi said every day you could feel inevitable thunderstorms approaching.
The morning of the match, it looked like the boomers had finally arrived and were ready to erupt.
Presuming rain, Agassi expected the start of his match would be delayed. His nerves dissipated. He felt like eating, something that he typically didn’t do before a match.
“I murdered a giant chicken sandwich,” he said.
As he was swallowing the final bite, as if it was heavenly intervention, the call came through: The storms had passed; the match was still on at its usual time.
Agassi thought about running into the bathroom to give back what he had just consumed.
Instead, he decided to go out and work so hard, to make himself so exhausted that either he was going to suffer from exhaustion, or his opponent would. After all, it was the Olympics. He might never have this chance again.
“It was the best match I played that year,” he said. “One of the best matches I played on any occasion.”
The Olympics hold a special place for Agassi. Unlike the Davis Cup, a team event in which your country can win without you, the Olympics offer tennis players a unique chance to represent their country. It’s a feeling that Agassi said he hopes many tennis players get to experience.
“You feel a sense of pride, responsibility and opportunity to do something that you are connected to, but that’s so much bigger than you,” he said.
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