Naomi Osaka shares who her favourite athlete is as she craves Olympic gold

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4 years ago

Naomi Osaka celebrates with the trophy after winning her Women's Singles final match against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus on Day Thirteen of the 2020 US Open (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

With the Tokyo Olympics three months away, World No.2 and 4-time Grand Slam Champion Naomi Osaka reveals her favourite athlete.

Osaka will be determined to strike gold at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, as she will be representing her home country, Japan.

Having missed out on qualifying for the Rio Olympics in 2016 narrowly, the then 18-year old Osaka saw a meteoric rise in her professional tennis career. Since then, she has won both the US Open and the Australian Open twice.

Japan’s Naomi Osaka kisses the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup trophy after beating Jennifer Brady of the US to win their women’s singles final match on day thirteen of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on February 20, 2021. (Photo by David Gray / AFP) / — IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE — (Photo by DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images)

And now, she is looking forward to leaving her trails in the Olympics as well.

Speaking in an interview with ITF Tennis, Osaka revealed that she always tends to put her goals realistically, before adding that she will be relaxing for a while, as there are more than three months left for Tokyo.

Osaka said:

“I have allowed myself to dream that dream of winning the gold medal. But it won’t be easy. And I tend to put my goals realistically and also short-term, and it’s not even July yet! So, I’m going to chill.” [via ITFTennis.com]

Osaka picked Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt as her favourite athlete of all time, going on to say that she and her entire family loved watching Lightning Bolt run.

Osaka had the following to say about Bolt:

“For me, it’s always been a dream of mine. As a kid you wake up and watch your favourite athletes play. My most outstanding Olympic memory is just watching [Usain] Bolt run. He’s my favourite athlete, me and my whole family – my dad loves his running, so we would just, like, watch him.” [via ITFTennis.com]

The Brand ‘Naomi Osaka’ is soaring off-court

Besides her on-court success, Osaka has been killing it off the court as well.

One of the biggest Nike athletes in the business with a flabbergasting deal of 8.5 million USD, she recently was featured as the brand ambassador for Nissan Arriya ad campaign.

And more recently, yesterday the 23-year old Japanese posted a Louis Vuitton photo ad on Instagram.

She was also the highest-paid female athlete in the year 2020, according to Forbes , with a ton of sponsorship partners notably Tag Heuer, Beats, Mastercard.