Williams sisters firming as all-time Olympic greats

You couldn’t really ask for better Olympic records than the ones Serena and Venus Williams have compiled over the years.

The decorated American sisters have both won four gold medals since first competing at the Olympic Games in 2000 – the year they combined to win doubles gold for the United States and in which Venus also claimed singles gold.

They were also doubles gold medallists in Beijing 2008 and London 2012, the latter at which Serena stormed through the singles draw in one of the most dominant performances of her career to claim yet another gold.

Serena has never left an Olympic games without at least one gold medal. Venus only failed to hit the greatest heights in Athens 2004 – an Olympiad from which Serena was absent – when she lost in the third round in singles and opening round of the doubles with compatriot Chanda Rubin.

This year in Rio, Serena is seeded No.1 in singles and Venus No.5 – and they’re combining yet again in doubles as the reigning Wimbledon champions.

More gold could come for the champion sisters in what would further cement their legacy as among the greatest sports stars in history.

Where do the sisters rank among tennis players at the Olympics?

They’re head and shoulders above their peers. It’s not even close.

Since tennis was reintroduced to the Games in 1988, fellow Americans Gigi Fernandez and Mary Joe Fernandez won two gold medals each, as did Chilean Nicolas Massu. They’re the best of the rest. If you go back to when tennis was a part of the Olympics between 1896 and 1924, the best performer was Brit Reginald Doherty – in a far weaker era. And still he only managed three golds.

The sisters’ four medals in total is a tally matched by Arantxa Sanchez Vicario – but unlike Venus and Serena’s four golds, the Spaniard’s haul contains two silver and two bronze. Only one player in history – Kathleen McKane Godfree of Britain, who competed in the 1920s – has won more medals, but her tally of five features just one gold.

Where do they rank against Olympians in other sports?

They don’t fare as well – but that’s hardly their fault.

With four golds among four medals in total, Serena and Venus sit at equal-155th on the table of multiple Olympic gold medallists.

Heading that table is American Michael Phelps with a stunning haul of 18 golds.

Yet Phelps competes in a sport – swimming – in which athletes can come away with a swag of gold medals from each games. Serena and Venus, as tennis players, have only been able to win a maximum of two at each Olympics, until the recent introduction of mixed doubles (at London 2012). Even then, a maximum of three gold does not compare to events such as swimming, athletics or gymnastics, where athletes can compete in multiple events and sometimes be competing for up to six or seven medals.

So, when you take the 34 swimmers, 21 track & field athletes and 26 gymnasts out of the table who come in equal to or ahead of them – plus 37 Winter Olympians – then the Williams sisters start to fare quite well against comparable athletes at the Summer Games.

Already they’re level on four gold medals with swimming greats Dara Torres (USA), Alexander Popov (RUS), Inge de Bruijn (NED) and Dawn Fraser (AUS), cyclist Bradley Wiggins (GBR), diver Greg Louganis (USA), track & field’s Allyson Felix and Jesse Owens (USA) and basketball’s Lisa Leslie (USA).

More gold would send the sisters higher in the Olympic stratosphere – level with rower Steve Redgrave (GBR), swimming’s Ian Thorpe (AUS) and gymnast Nadia Comaneci (ROU).

Given their standing within the game of tennis and sporting culture as a whole, it would only be fitting for Serena and Venus to add to their Olympic legacies.