ITF

180 I think I was happier to win the doubles than the singles. We were so excited, it was great. Every time I think of the Sydney Olympics I just return to that moment where we had so much fun. Venus and I were so excited, we jumped up and we hugged each other and we ran around the court. I remember our outfits, I remember our hair, I remember everything. It was pretty fun. In Sydney I had a lot of opportunities to see different things. I saw archery, swimming, I never made it to the gymnastics, but I saw the athletics, it's just a great experience. It's just so fun to see all these different athletes who are just in there, from countries you don't expect. I saw some athletes from North Korea, which was pretty intense, at the London Olympics. The biggest hangout spot is the McDonald's. Every American athlete is there. They just eat there so I was like, "I'm going to hang out there too." Beijing was probably the best Olympic experience I've had. The things they did for that city. The traffic there is crazy so they told people they couldn't drive and they had a special Olympic lane so even if there was a little traffic each vehicle drove in the Olympic lane. That was crazy. We had a tough match against the Bondarenko sisters and we almost lost. I told Venus, "Look, we are not playing for the bronze medal!" She was like, "Alright!" and somehow we managed to pull it out. We had another interesting final. We couldn't believe that we were in the final again, that was really fun. I get nervous and I think she [Venus] does too. It's a little pressure because you don't want to lose for your partner. I feel like it's a little more pressure than singles. In London I played unbelievably. I haven't played like that since, I didn't drop a set. I had an out-of-body experience in London. I was having so much fun, I was so happy. It was so different, it didn't even feel like Wimbledon. There were advertisements everywhere, there was colour everywhere, people were on the court without shirts. But at the same time it was like, "I was just here at Wimbledon and now I'm here at the Olympics." I had a whole out-of-body experience, especially between the quarterfinals, semis and final. There was no tension. I had the best time on court, off court, it was just amazing. I've been trying to get back to that. That was really crazy and I'm glad it happened at the Olympics. That final doubles match [in London] was a tough one. It was tough because there were very little breaks and our holds were tight. I still watch that sometimes on YouTube because it was so good. I remember telling Venus when we lost our first match point, and on the second match point I was thinking, "Venus you gotta cross, you have to cross," and then she just reached over and crossed and I was so, so happy. I never thought we would win three doubles gold medals. I think I was happier to win the doubles than the singles. We were so excited, it was great. When I'm at the Olympics all of a sudden I'm like, "USA!" It can be a sport I'm not even into and I'm like, "Did we win?" I never come out of my USA jacket. It's intense but fun. It's interesting, whenever I'm at the Olympics I don't feel the pressure to win, I just feel like I'm here to do whatever, to the best I can obviously, but I want to go and see all the other athletes. I want to do this, and it's a team. It was kind of hard being so far away [in London]. I made it to the Village as always, I think I went there a lot, more in London than the other Olympics. My whole thing in London was that I became a devout pin collector. I went from being psycho pin collector in Sydney, to psycho- er and psycho-est in London. I would do it before the match, during the match and after the match. I have way more than 100. I have a plan. When I retire I'm going to revisit that and make a project. I'm going to put all my pins together from each separate Olympics around my medals because I have medals in three Olympics. We're going to definitely go for another one [doubles gold in Rio]. It's good because my volleys are better, actually I always had really good volleys but now I just feel like it's even better than it was. Worse case we'll be able to compete and we'll trade pins.

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