Serena Williams will not be competing at the Olympics in Tokyo this summer, according to CBS News. The 23-time Grand Slam winner told the press on June 27 prior to her competition at Wimbledon that she was not on the U.S. team.
“Yeah, I’m actually not on the Olympic list, so, um, not that I’m aware of. And, if so, then I should’t be on it,” said Williams.
The tennis champion did not elaborate on why she wouldn’t be playing at the Tokyo Olympics, but many speculate it’s because of the pandemic.
“There’s a lot of reasons that I made my Olympic decision. I don’t really want to, I don’t feel like going into them today. Maybe another day. Sorry,” she said.
Williams added that she wasn’t thinking about how not competing in the Olympics would feel like, and she was going to continue to not think about it, according to the Guardian.
“I have not thought about it,” said Williams. “In the past, it’s been a wonderful place for me. I really haven’t thought about it, so I’m going to keep not thinking about it.”
Other players have also opted out of competing at the Tokyo Olympics, including men’s tennis players Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem. Speculation about the coronavirus pandemic in Japan is rumored to be the reason for the withdrawals.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
The official in charge of the Japanese government’s response to the coronavirus, Yasutoshi Nishimura, said that another state of emergency may be declared soon. Tokyo and other areas in the country are seeing a rise in COVID-19 infections, according to the Japan Times.
“If necessary, we should not hesitate to declare a state of emergency and should be flexible about declaring it for areas that are currently placed under the quasi-emergency stage,” said Nishimura.
Experts worry that the Olympics will only exacerbate the rise in COVID-19 infections. A member of Uganda’s Olympic team was denied entry to into the country after testing positive for the coronavirus. At least 14,000 people have died of the coronavirus in Japan since the pandemic hit.
Williams and her husband, entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian, have a three-year-old daughter. Athletes are banned from bringing family members to the Olympic games due to safety protocols, so the tennis champion wouldn’t be able to travel with her husband and daughter, Alexis.
Williams has already won four Olympic gold medals for the United States. The champion won two of her gold medals at the 2012 Olympics in London in both the singles and doubles’ competitions. She won another gold medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and another at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, both playing doubles. Williams won the Olympic doubles’ matches along with her big sister, 41-year-old Venus Williams.
The Tokyo Olympics opens on July 23.
