Put the rubbish out, get the shopping done, win an Olympic gold medal.<\/p>\n
That was the to-do list of Monica Puig, the 22-year-old whose victory in the women\u2019s singles in Rio earlier this month made her the first ever Puerto Rican to win Olympic gold.<\/p>\n
It was an unlikely but fully-deserved win for the world number 34, catapulting her to hero status and making her a role model for young people in the island Commonwealth that is enduring tough economic times.<\/p>\n
Now Puig wants to capitalize on her victory, both on and off the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that there\u2019s no doubt in my mind that I can probably win a grand slam because the Olympics was one,\u201d she told Reuters at Flushing Meadows on Sunday, on the eve of the U.S. Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just doesn\u2019t have the title grand slam but the best players in the world were there, including Serena (Williams).<\/p>\n
\u201cI won the biggest thing on my to-do list and I just want to keep knocking off other ones, and that would be to win a grand slam.\u201d<\/p>\n
Confident but at-ease despite all the new-found attention, Puig is still coming to terms with her stunning victory in Rio.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s really sunk in,\u201d she said. “It\u2019s a little bit difficult to process. I was by no means the favorite. It was such a surreal ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
In floods of tears during the medal ceremony, Puig and her gold medal have been virtually inseparable ever since.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember waking up several times in the middle of the night and just looking at my night stand to actually see if my medal was there because I didn\u2019t believe it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t able to sleep very much for three, four or five days. It was the most surreal feeling in the world to be an Olympic champion that morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with congratulations from her fellow players, Puig has been subjected to abuse on social media, with many people expecting a let-down at the U.S. Open, where she faces Saisai Zheng of China in the first round.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately I\u2019m guilty of reading my Twitter and sometimes the comments under articles but you know what, a lot of that fuels my fire,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Puig, who was greeted by thousands of people when she landed in Puerto Rico after her victory, embraces being a role model.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see it as a responsibility,\u201d she said. \u201cI know what comes with that responsibility as far as conducting myself in the same way that I have, in a very respectful manner, always setting a good example, especially for the youth of Puerto Rico, which is very important.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gave me a lot of hope back to the people of Puerto Rico, which was really important for me because they\u2019re going through such difficult times. \u201cThe message is that nothing is ever impossible. People probably thought me winning a medal was impossible and I proved them wrong.”<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, Puig says she will have a special role in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have approached me to be flag-bearer,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019ve already asked me about the possibility of doing it in 2020 and there\u2019s no way I could say no.\u201d<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Put the rubbish out, get the shopping done, win an Olympic gold medal. That was the to-do list of Monica Puig, the 22-year-old whose victory in the women\u2019s singles in Rio earlier this month made her the first ever Puerto Rican to win Olympic gold. It was an unlikely but fully-deserved win for the world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":243857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=243854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/243857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=243854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=243854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=243854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}