Rafa Nadal has stated that he will skip Wimbledon in order to prepare his body for the Olympics in Paris. In pursuit of his third Olympic gold medal, the legendary Spanish tennis player will partner with recently crowned French Open winner Carlos Alcaraz at the forthcoming Games.

The news was made three days after 21-year-old Alcaraz captured his first French Open championship and third grand slam trophy at Roland Garros. Alcaraz, who is frequently quoted as saying that Rafael Nadal was his childhood hero, is generally recognized as the heir apparent in the Spanish tennis hierarchy. Nadal will continue his preparations on clay, the same surface that will be used for the tennis events at the Olympics, rather than switching to grass because he has little chance of making a deep run at Wimbledon and has never played doubles with Alcaraz.

The 38-year-old Nadal already has Olympic gold medals in singles (2008) and doubles (2016 with Marc Lopez) to go alongside his 22 grand slam titles. Nadal and Alcaraz will be joined on Spain’s men’s Olympic tennis team by Pablo Carreno Busta, Alejandro Davidovich and Marcel Granollers.

Following the French Open, Rafael Nadal said he had most likely played his final Wimbledon match because the strain of going from clay to grass and back again would have been too much for his aging body to handle. The tennis champion has only played at Wimbledon once in the previous four years, in 2022, when he advanced to the semifinals before having to quit due to an injury before his match against Australian Nick Kyrgios.