Olympic Champion Belinda Bencic Balances Gold and Motherhood

Belinda Bencic remembers the night before her Olympic gold medal match like it was yesterday, even though five years have passed since her triumph at Tokyo 2020.

The Swiss tennis player couldn't sleep, her mind racing through every possible scenario. She had just beaten future Wimbledon champions in back-to-back matches, playing singles and doubles in the brutal Japanese summer heat with barely any rest between matches.

"I remember during the match I was saying to myself, 'I have to play like it's the last match of my life,'" Bencic tells Olympics.com. "Even if I don't win another match in my whole career, I don't care."

At 24 years old, Bencic became the first Swiss woman to win Olympic singles gold, joining tennis legends Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka in her country's Olympic history. The final match stretched past midnight local time, ending with a powerful serve and an explosion of emotion that marked Switzerland's first tennis gold in 13 years.

The celebrations had to wait, though. Bencic returned to the Olympic Village at 3:00 AM, then played in the doubles final the next morning, earning a silver medal alongside partner Viktorija Golubic.

Why This Inspires

Bencic's perspective shifted completely after Tokyo. Instead of feeling pressure to achieve more, she felt liberated by reaching her ultimate goal at such a young age.

"Everything that came after felt more like a bonus," she explains. The 29-year-old no longer tells herself she must win Grand Slams to validate her career because she's already accomplished what matters most to her.

That mindset served her well when she welcomed her daughter Bella last year, taking time away from tennis during Paris 2024. Now back on tour, Bencic brings her biggest fan along, and little Bella has already picked up a tiny racket of her own.

"She's really into copying what I am doing on the court with her own little racket, and she calls it 'tennising,'" Bencic says with obvious delight. "She's like, 'Okay, mami, let's go tennising!'"

Bella doesn't understand yet that her mother plays tennis for a living. She just knows that running around courts with her toy racket is fun, especially when mom is nearby.

In January, Bencic won her first tournament as a mother at the Abu Dhabi Open, proving that Olympic gold and motherhood can coexist beautifully. She joins a growing number of tennis mothers competing at the highest levels, showing young athletes that major life choices don't have to mean career endings.

Bencic hopes Bella will love sports someday, though tennis isn't required. The most important lesson has already been learned: when you play like it's the last match of your life, you create memories that last forever.