Swiatek talks psychology, pressure and legacy with Olympic gold medalist Shiffrin

Iga Swiatek had a long conversation on Instagram with Mikaela Shiffrin who is a two-time Olympic gold medalist.

The unlikely friendship started over social media and this time they took it even further. In an Instagram live held on the Instagram page of Mikael Shiffrin the two had a long talk about psychology, pressure and legacy. Shiffrin who is a two-time Olympic gold medalist understands what Swiatek is feeling as she became a teenage champion as well.

Several months ago Swiatek even named Shiffrin a role model because of her successful way of dealing with all the pressure of a young champion. Speaking on her upcoming French Open title defence, Swiatek said:

"I don't know how I'm going to react. I've never been in a situation like that, even at a normal tournament, so I think we're going to be prepared for anything and we're just going to adjust. Everybody's going to have expectations so you just have to be in your own world."

Shiffrin gave her advice to simply focus on the positives. She said:

"The way people talk about it is almost as if it's some negative thing. That it's like a big thunderstorm that's coming and it's going to be so difficult to handle. I said I don't know, why don't we just be happy about it? Because it's a really great position to be in. Any question you get, if it's positive, then just go with it. But if it's ever trying to put pressure on you... change it in your mind, just to think what a cool position I'm in to be a defending champion already in my career."

Swiatek also touched upon the importance of building a legacy in the sport as she wants to see tennis grow in Poland:

"There's so much stuff that can develop in tennis in Poland, it's not going to be that hard to find a way to actually change something. I have some ideas right now. Before the French Open, I was just focusing on myself. Actually, nothing really changed after the tournament. But I'm approaching sports in a different way. And I am actually thinking sometimes about what I'm going to leave behind."

You can check out the full talk below.