Venus Williams is the only tennis player to achieve rare Olympic feat in Open Era. Can Andy Murray match fellow legend?
Venus Williams is the most decorated tennis player in Olympic Open Era history as she won five medals and the silver that she won at the 2016 Rio Games helped her to achieve a unique feat.
The American is the only player to win a medal in the three different tennis disciplines – singles, doubles and mixed doubles – at the Olympics since the sport became professional.
Andy Murray has a chance to match Williams as he is only a couple of wins away from winning a medal with Dan Evans in the men’s doubles at Paris 2024. The Brit won gold in the men’s singles at the 2012 London Games and the 2016 Rio Olympics and silver in the mixed doubles alongside Laura Robson in London.
The milestone of winning medals in the singles, doubles and mixed doubles was also achieved by Kathleen (Kitty) Godfree, but the British athlete racked up her tally in the 1920s, well before the Open Era.
Godfree won gold in the doubles, silver in the mixed doubles and bronze in the singles at Antwerp in 1920 while she also won silver in the doubles and bronze in the second at Paris four years later.
Tennis, of course, was removed from the Olympic programme after the 1924 Paris Olympics and only returned at the 1988 Seoul Games. The mixed doubles was not held for the first three editions as it only returned 2012 London Games.
And Williams four years after the mixed doubles was reintroduced, Williams became the first player to win medals in all three disciplines.
The former world No 1 has represented the United States at five different Olympic Games and, incredibly, she medalled in four different tournaments.
She also jointly holds the record with sister Serena for most gold medals with four.
Williams picked up her first-ever medal at the 2000 Sydney Games as she battled past Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Monica Seles to reach the final match where she downed Elena Dementieva to win gold.
Olympic Tennis News
The 7 countries to win multiple tennis Olympic Gold medals in Open Era: USA out in front
Tennis at the Olympic Games: The 7 greatest moments – ranked!
Venus doubled at Sydney as not long after she picked up a second gold as she teamed up with sister Serena in the women’s doubles as they defeated Dutch pair Kristie Boogert and Miriam Oremans.
Eight years later the Williams sisters again claimed gold in the doubles at the 2008 Beijing Games while they successfully defended their title at the 2012 London Games.
Joint with Serena on four gold medals, Venus edged ahead at the 2016 Rio Games thanks to her last-minute partnership with Rajeev Ram in the mixed doubles.
Both were aged 36 when they finished runner-up to fellow Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock in Brazil.
“I’m used to doing this with Serena and it’s such a crazy feeling to do it with someone else,” Williams said. “To feel what I feel with Serena, [but] with someone else, is a wild emotion and I never thought it would happen.”
She added: “With Serena, I expect to win; I got to be honest. And [Ram and I], never play together, and we didn’t know how we were going to play. So the emotion is almost even bigger because you don’t know what to expect.”
The likes of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Nicolas Massu, Fernando Gonazalez, Steffi Graf, Mary-Jo Fernandez and Belinda Bencic have medals in both the singles and doubles, but not the mixed doubles as the event was either not part of the Olympic programme or they opted against competing.