Lydia Ko – with her Silver Medal in Rio – can she make it three
Lydia Ko is, this week, playing her third Olympic golf competition at Le Golf National, one of 16 players in this week’s event to have played all three Olympics since the sport’s return to the Olympic family in 2016.
Ko claimed the Silver medal in Rio and the Bronze in Tokyo and in what might be potentially her last time representing New Zealand in this competition she is keen to complete the medal collection with a Gold.
“If I can leave Paris with another medal, that will be very special to me because you just never know what’s going to happen in the future,” said Ko in Monday’s Media Conference. “I don’t know if this is, like, maybe potentially my last opportunity to medal, like, just because I don’t know what’s ahead. I really want to enjoy it and give myself a good run at it.
“I’m, obviously, super excited to represent New Zealand again for my third Olympics. You know, the Olympics come around every four years, Tokyo being kind of the exception. But yeah, it’s amazing that this is going to be my third.
“Time has gone by quick. To have been able to medal in the past two Games, I feel very fortunate about that and excited to give it a good run again this week.”
In Rio, Ko shot a 2-under 69 in the final round to earn a medal for New Zealand to finish at 11-under par, five shots back of gold medalist Inbee Park (-16). In 2020, Ko and eventual silver medalist Mone Inami shot 65s to tie at 16-under overall.
Ko won her 20th LPGA Tour victory this past January since her first in 2012 as an amateur. She is now one point away from the necessary 27 needed towards LPGA Hall of Fame induction, and has the ability to earn one Hall of Fame point with a gold medal.
When asked her thoughts on Le Golf National Ko responded;
“I think it’s going to be the toughest Olympics as of yet. Rio and Tokyo had a very different feeling. This is a very different golf course to that as well. When I saw the men play and the scores that they were shooting I was very impressed because that wasn’t the initial kind of scores that I was expecting.
“But you know, it is tricky and I think a lot of the players were saying last week that the first couple — if you could get through the first couple holes and finish well the last few holes, the middle you can play with and that’s what I’ve seen out there. Even though it is tricky, it’s the same playing field for everyone.
“So I’m just going to hopefully play strategically but at the same time aggressively because all of us that are competing in a tournament, and it’s a slightly different mindset to our usual event on tour.”
Ko was asked as to her thoughts on the two medals she has won to date
“I think I’m proud of both. Very different circumstances. Being in that playoff for either the Silver or the Bronze in Tokyo, and if I go down this road of what I could have done better or should have done better, it’s kind of like an endless cat-and-mouse situation there.
“I would say both the Silver and Bronze would be up there alongside some of my other wins. We were saying, I think Yuka was saying as well, most of the time, we’re playing, everyone only remembers who won that week. Nobody really remembers someone came second or third.
“That’s the great thing about the Olympics is you’re a Gold Medallist, Silver Medalist and Bronze Medalist, and you’re not, like, second behind so-and-so and third behind someone. It celebrates each and every Olympian here, and I think for all 120 of us over the past couple weeks that have qualified to be here, I think it’s a huge win.”
Ko’s medals have been in the hands of others since she was presented with them and it is quite an emotional story.
“I’m pretty sure the Tokyo medal is somewhere in my sister’s apartment, and the Rio Silver is in my dad’s closet. So they are in very treasured places, just not with me. I’m not very careful to start off with, any ways, so I trust them, more than my memory.
“Tokyo, because of circumstances, I was only there with my sister and my performance manager and my grandmother had unfortunately passed the day I was leaving for Tokyo, and I asked my sister who was going to Korea from Japan to take it back and show it to my parents and also hopefully take it to grandma’s grave. That was kind of the meaning on why it went to her place.
“My dad normally likes to keep stuff. So I find a lot of cool things in there when I hope it from whiskey bottles to memorabilia. That’s why he kept the Rio one.
“If I win the Gold, I’m definitely taking all of them back and I’m going to find a way to kind of present all three.
“Yeah, but I don’t really have, like, a good place to store it right now. Like, my trophy room in Orlando also has a golf net and, like, my workout stuff. Because it used to be a trophy room but then COVID made me use it into, like, a home gym. It’s very crowded in there and getting musty in there. I think if I do win the Gold, I might actually have to maybe get a new home or get a proper thing to kind of, like, honour it.
“But it’s a long way from now but it’s definitely a good dream and something that I can think of.”
Having medalled at the two previous Olympics Ko is perhaps one who could cast an interesting perspective of where she thinks the Olympics stand in the overall scheme of things.
“I think it’s obviously grown a lot and with anything, I think there always is going to be that time period where it kind of gets incorporated smoothly. I think it’s quite hard because both in Rio and Tokyo we had external factors that were affecting maybe players’ choice in attending the Games even though they qualified.
“I feel like this is the first one back and it’s been, like, boom, this past week, and I think that’s great. I know there has been potential talks about team format for maybe L.A. or Brisbane, and I think everybody involved, they are trying to get a good idea of what’s the best way to do this and what’s the best way to dial down these three medalists. To see that has been awesome.
“When I was in my teens, it was my goal to represent New Zealand at the Olympics, and I’m sure there are many other junior golfers that either watched yesterday’s round from all over the world that are going to get inspiration off them competing in the Olympics themselves in five or ten years’ time.
“When I first started golf, I didn’t think I would be able to say I’m an Olympian. I thought that’s something that I turn on the TV during the Olympic Games and I see, like, Usain Bolt or a Simone Biles and go, wow, they are Olympians, but I’m just a golfer.
“But now I can say I’m an Olympian just like them, and that’s something I’m very proud of. I know for a fact that many junior golfers are going to dream and work towards them representing their countries at the Olympics in the future Games.”
After a great start to 2024 when Ko won the Tournament of Champions and finished runner-up in her next event, she has slipped down the rankings and now stands outside the top 20 after starting the year inside the top ten.
Given her lack of recent form, she has a tough task to add to her medal tally in which only she and Nelly Korda in this week’s field have medalled in previous events.
