Why Djokovic couldn’t find his Gold Medal and where he keeps memorable Asics Shoes
When Novak Djokovic, a 24-time major singles champion and 2024 Paris Olympic gold medalist, traveled to New York for the 2024 U.S. Open, he was expected to carry his gold medal with him for a few planned activities.
He could not find it.
“I forgot it because my kids hid it somewhere,” he explains. “So, then I was panicking because I had to take it.” He boarded the plane without it, but the family quickly discovered the medal, which was brought over by Djokovic’s physiotherapist, who was going the next day. It’s all part of having two children who are just as enthused about huge achievements as their father.
Djokovic claims he hadn’t seen his medal from Paris for days after returning home. “One night my daughter and one night my son sleeps with it,” he informs me. “They have a couple of trophies in their rooms.” It’s all part of the Djokovic family’s celebrations.
But Djokovic now has the medal in New York. “I try to look at it once a day and say ‘hello,'” he exclaims, “and say ‘thank you’ and get inspired for more.”
Of all the tremendously successful moments in the Serbian’s career, he believes winning Olympic gold for his country was not just one of his greatest dreams—especially after experiencing “heartbreaking losses” in previous Olympics—but it has also become the best experience he has ever had as an athlete.
“When I won the semis in Paris [Olympics], I fell to the ground because I knew silver was guaranteed,” he remembers. “However, silver was never the final goal. I was going for gold. It was one of the best tennis performances I had seen in years. It’s just different. The Olympic Games are historically the most important sporting event. He described carrying the Serbian flag in the 2012 London opening ceremonies as his best athletic experience, but winning gold in Paris surpassed it.
However, the gold medal is not Djokovic’s only major career accomplishment. And he knows it well, having kept a piece of the key wins for the past 15 years, preserving at least one jersey, one shoe—not necessarily a pair, but at least one shoe—and the racket for mementos and “maybe a future museum if and when it happens.”
Djokovic’s father is now in charge of the treasures, creating a “mini museum” to proudly display his son’s accomplishments. So, if he wins another trophy, he sends it to his father, albeit his children have now taken over and keep trophies in their bed, sleeping with an Olympic medal on their pillow.
“[Memorabilia] already has a lot of value, but one day later on, it will have even more,” Djokovic told reporters.
Some of those special memories include essential technology that Djokovic has worked on for years, particularly as Asics has pushed toward developing the Court FF 3 Novak shoe for his on-court play.
“A racket and shoes are the most important pieces of a kit a tennis player has,” Djokovic informs me. “You never want to mess around with a racket and shoes, you want to make sure you have the best racket possible and the best shoes possible.”
Since signing with Asics in 2018, Djokovic has collaborated with designers to improve his footwear and “create the best possible shoe.” He admits that it took some time to get to the Court FF 3, but he appreciates that the designers share the same philosophy that he values and identifies with: always wanting to be better with each model.
“I don’t know if they can really make a better shoe than the one I am having now,” he says. “To be honest, I don’t know how far they can go. This shoe has all the elements that I need. The stability, the balance, obviously the durability of the material.”
Djokovic observes that people may underestimate the complicated requirement for adaptability that tennis necessitates, from shifting surfaces—from “indoor, outdoor, grass, clay, red clay, green clay, blue clay for a year, hard court”—to different climates, sections of the world, and varying humidity. “All these aspects and conditions affect how you feel and how you move,” he points out. “It is critical that you are comfortable in your shoes and that they allow you to move quickly and change direction. It is the ideal tennis shoe, and the greatest I have ever owned.”
When it comes time to build a Novak Djokovic museum, those shoes—or at least a single example from Paris 2024—will be displayed alongside an Olympic gold medal.
