Lydia Ko (NZL) stands on the podium with her Gold medal after winning the Women's Individual Stroke Play Golf at Paris 2024. Photo: photosport
Kiwi golfer Lydia Ko has played her last Olympics.
Ko completed her set of Olympic medals with a gold in Paris on Sunday, adding to the silver she won in Rio and the bronze in Tokyo.
And that is enough for the 27-year-old.
"I said earlier in the week that I didn't know if this would be my last Olympics. I can tell you now, this is my last Olympics," Ko said after her victory at Le Golf National.
To have achieved that feat seemed to present Ko with some relief.
Lydia Ko was visibly moved during the women's individual stroke play medal ceremony. Photo: Simon Stacpoole / www.photosport.nz
"Being tied for the lead going into today, I knew that the next 18 holes was going to be some of the most important 18 holes of my life."
And it had its challenges.
She started the day in a share of the lead, mixed a couple of great saves and some fine putts in the front nine to stretch her lead out to five shots.
That soon shrunk as she double bogeyed the 13th and the field closed to within one.
Cool and calm, she maintained that lead before birdying the last to seal a two-shot victory.
Ko took a page out of US gymnast Simone Biles' story as she prepared to play the last couple of rounds in her Olympic career.
"I kept telling myself I get to write my own ending - and it's a quote that Simone Biles said.
"So I kept telling myself that, and I wanted to be the one that was going to control my fate and the ending to this week and to have ended this way is honestly a dream come true."
The feat also means Ko has gained enough qualifying points to be eligible to join World Golf's Hall of Fame.
"It was never a goal of mine, but when that chance came I felt it was something I had to make a move towards and for it to happen after winning the gold medal, it's unbelievable."
Ko also shed a tear standing on the podium listening to the national anthem.
"I got to listen to the Korean national anthem in Rio and the American national anthem in Tokyo and I was emotional then.
"So I knew I was probably going to be an emotional wreck listening to ours, so I tried really hard to not cry too much on world-wide television."
Ko now heads off to Britain for a couple of tournaments including the British Open, so retirement hasn't been confirmed.
"I have great days and I want to play as long as I can, and then I have days where I wake up with a sore back [and] I think I can't make it any more, so I don't think there is a specific date.
"Now that I've got into the Hall of Fame I don't know if that affects anything, but for now I just want to enjoy this moment."
Photo: AFP/PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU
A player on the LPGA tour needs 27 points to be eligible for the Hall of Fame.
Ko has 20 wins on the LPGA tour, seven on the European tour and two major titles.
She is the seventh New Zealander to win a medal of every colour at the Olympics following Paul MacDonald, Dame Valerie Adams, Blyth Tait, Barbara Kendall, Kerri Williams and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott.
