My dad was an Olympic rower, but I turned to tennis due to fear of water – now he’s watched me win medal at Paris 2024
Very few children are able to match the achievements of their Olympian parent, and even less manage to surpass them.
When an athlete has followed in the footsteps of their role model relative, and then become the dominant force in their sport aged just 23, it is hard not to take notice.
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This is what makes Iga Swiatek's story so impressive, with the Polish sensation now asserting herself as the face of women's tennis.
With four Grand Slam titles to her name already, including four French Open crowns, Swiatek, who has now added an Olympic medal to her trophy cabinet, has spent more than 100 weeks as the number-one-ranked female player in the world.
Shortly before her latest Roland Garros triumph, her superstar status was confirmed when she became the first sportsperson to sign a worldwide ambassadorship with the beauty company Lancome.
The endorsement is set to boost the Pole's already healthy finances, who topped Forbes's 2023 sporting female rich list, with £11.2million in sponsorship deals boosting her £7.9million in prize money.
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And while Swiatek has arguably become the most talked about name in her own sport, there was a time where she lived in the shadow of another hugely successful athlete in her family.
Her father, Tomasz, is a former Olympic rower, who represented Poland in the men’s quadruple sculls at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
The 23-year-old also faced a battle to outshine her older sister, Agata, who competed on the ITF junior circuit of tennis, before giving up the sport due to injury.
And their father has credited the sibling rivalry for developing his youngest daughter into the driven competitor she is today.
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In an interview with Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolitalast last year, Tomasz said of Swiatek: “She was always a kid who wanted to compete.
“First with her older sister, then with rivals on the court. As a ten-year-old, she urged, ‘Let’s go to a tournament for older girls, because we’ve already beaten everyone here.’
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“She was always looking for new challenges.”
Swiatek herself has admitted she was never likely to follow her father into rowing, telling Ausopen.com in 2020: “I was scared of the water so tennis was much better for me.”
But her competitive nature meant that she was always destined for the very top of the sport, winning her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros in 2020.
Emotional World No.1 Iga Swiatek walks out of interview in tears after Olympic dream ends with defeat to Qinwen Zheng
The Warsaw native followed this up by becoming the second Olympian in her family when she donned Poland's colours for the rescheduled Tokyo Games in 2021.
Despite suffering a disappointing second round defeat to Paula Badosa, the world number one ensured she didn't leave the Paris Olympics empty-handed by scooping the bronze medal at Roland Garros.
Swiatek was left heartbroken following her semi-final defeat to China's Zheng Qinwen, resulting in her walking out of her interview in emotional scenes.
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But her tears of sadness quickly turned to tears of joy after she emerged victorious over Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in the bronze medal match.
Her triumph also saw Swiatek become Poland's first Olympic tennis medallist.
And in what was an extra special occasion for Swiatek, her Olympian father was in attendance to see her win a medal.
Commenting on what it means to share her victory with him, she remarked: "It’s amazing.
"Honestly me and my sister were raised in this spirit that the Olympics are the most important tournament.
"That’s why it wasn’t the easiest tournament. This makes it even better. I’m proud of myself I could do it.
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"I’m happy he was here to see it. This is for sure a great place for me to be and play.
"I’m happy that besides Roland Garros titles, I could add another success to it."
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