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2016 ITF Olympic Book

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196 B ob: There's nothing more magical than being at an Olympics and it's surely the pinnacle of an athlete's life. I feel like the culmination of every hour we've put in is (being) repaid right there on the Olympic stage. Win or lose, it's a special experience and no athlete should turn that down. Those medals are probably the two pieces of hardware we're most proud of in our trophy case. Mike: It's something that puts you in another category, something extra special that kind of transcends the game. The Olympics has that mystique. Everyone knows what a gold medal is and sometimes people don't know the Aussie Open or French Open. A million people come by the house and they blow by all the other trophies and ask, "Can I hold the gold medal?" Bob: We were the No. 1 seeds at all three Olympics we played. We played great our first two rounds in Athens, and then we played against [Nicolas] Massu who had a magical week. He played about a three-and- a-half-hour singles match in humidity before the doubles. He was cramping and limping, and I think we just took him lightly. We felt a bit like rope-a-dopes. He got that second wind as he did all week and they [Massu and Fernando Gonzalez] surprised us. It's something that puts you in another category, something extra special that kind of transcends the game. The Olympics has that mystique.

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