Olympic silver medalist Gail Emms reflects upon Emma Raducanu’s US Open triumph and picks out three key points as the keys to her success…
Watching tennis starlet Emma Raducanu win the US Open was just incredible. At 18-years-old, and with all the odds stacked against her, she defied each and every one of them to win.
Now all journalists and media outlets are desperate to know the ‘how’s?’ and ‘why’s?’ of her success, interviewing everyone from her school teachers to coaches and family, trying to get that golden nugget of information to show other people that it is possible too.
The truth is that there isn’t one reason why Emma won, there isn’t one person that made it all happen, there isn’t a magic formula at all.
It is a combination of many factors, from Emma’s personality traits, to her upbringing, to her approach
to the tournament.
Emma is, as we all are, a product of nature and nurture… and we all have a choice about what we do about it.
Whenever I am asked to do a motivational talk about winning, mindset and resilience, I always finish with these three points as I believe they are the keys to success… mine, Emma’s and yours too.
Trust
We need to be able to trust ourselves, our support team, instincts… we can only control two things in life. Our thoughts, and our actions on our thoughts.
Strengths and weaknesses
No one is superhuman and is 100% perfect… accepting this, maximising what you are good at and asking for help at what you’re not, means you have the self-awareness to be the best you possible.
Adaptability
Life will throw all sorts at you. To quote Ronan Keating, ‘Life is a rollercoaster, you just have to ride it’.
But it’s true we need the downs to get the momentum to get back up again, so make sure you enjoy the twists and turns that you get carried on.
Winning has different meanings for everyone, but Emma has shown us that with a positive mindset and an only-live-once attitude, the unbelievable can be achieved.
You can follow Gail on Instagram @gailemms
