Tennis Olympic Gold Medalist Monica Puig Embraces Newfound Running Passion Alongside Athleta

As a member of the brand’s Power of She Collective, she has made the transition to triathlons with the best gear and an incredible community at her back.

Monica Puig / Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

When Athleta called Monica Puig to ask her to be a part of its collective, they didn’t know she had just retired. Upon launching a tennis line, the company wanted the 2016 Olympic gold medalist to rep their gear. It was an “incredible” opportunity, and she was “heartbroken” to relay the news: after years of professional play, she was putting away her racquet.

It didn’t sway Athleta. They said “no big deal,” Puig recalls, “we are not the type of brand that is really focused on that. We are more focused on … empowering women who are in different stages of life, whether it’s motherhood, whether they’re a little bit older, whether they’re going through retirement, whether they’re young girls who are starting tennis.”

So, she joined the Power of She Collective, a group of female athletes who represent the activewear brand. Including names like Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles, Brenna Huckaby and, of course, Puig, the group is a picture of female athletes in “different phases of our lives,” the former tennis pro says. Some are in the “prime of [their] sporting careers,” while others have just returned from maternity leave. Still others, like Puig, have retired.

The call really couldn’t have come at a better time. Walking away from the sport that Puig had dedicated so many years to wasn’t easy, but the Power of She Collective made it a little bit more so. “In my lowest moment, when I started to feel like I was an irrelevant person,” she says, “[Athleta] made me feel important.” The collective gave her a supportive community at the moment she most needed one.

From Olympic gold to retirement

The 2016 season was, undeniably, Puig’s best year on tour. Her results were consistent. She was reaching the quarterfinals of most tournaments, the semifinals and finals of a few others. But, still, winning an Olympic gold for her native Puerto Rico wasn’t really on her radar.

“The Olympics kind of came out of nowhere,” she remarks. “It wasn’t a result that any of us were really expecting.”

Going in, her only intention was to “enjoy the experience.” She didn’t know if she would have the chance to participate in another Olympic games, so she wanted to take it all in.

Puig had more than enough opportunity to do so en route to an Olympic gold medal. She’s still not sure what exactly propelled her to the podium, but she thinks that her relaxed mentality—focusing more on the experience than the outcome—certainly “helped take the pressure off.”

The entire season was, for Puig, nothing short of “surreal.” The Olympic gold “changed [her] life,” but that made the following years only that much harder to bear. 

Monica Puig holds her Olympic gold medal / Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

Heading into 2017, she was at a career high ranking of No. 27 in the world. “It was tough to come down from that high because I suddenly expected myself to be settled and expected that things were going to go my way,” she admits.

When it became apparent that that was not the case, Puig’s mental health suffered. “I don’t think I was mature enough to understand that not every single week is going to be a fairy tale week,” she says.

She “battled it out as best [she] could,” though. The few seasons after her Olympic gold saw some good results. She stayed in the top 50 in the WTA rankings for a while, then fell to the top 100. It was, in Puig’s words, “rocky.” She wasn’t as consistent as she would have liked. 

Puig calls 2019 “the beginning of the end.” Up to that point, she had been injury-free, but she started the season with elbow surgery that year. The next couple of years saw an interruption of play due to COVID-19 (Puig saw this as a “blessing,” a chance to recover from injury) and two more surgeries, this time on her shoulder.

Each time she tried to return to the court, to catch her stride, her shoulder would seemingly undo all of the rehab she had put into it. After her second shoulder surgery in 2022, she returned to the court again. Her first match back was promising—but when she couldn’t raise her arm over her head afterward, she knew another surgery was in store.

She was 28 at the time, and another surgery would mean almost a year of rehab before she would be back on the court. After the match, she sat with her mom and cried. “She told me that it was O.K. to let go, because she knew I was suffering,” Puig says.

Walking away wasn’t easy. “Tennis had been everything for my whole life and then to have it suddenly taken away” was heart-wrenching, Puig shares. “I felt like I still had five, six, seven good years left in me.”

But she knew it was time to let go. So, she made the tough decision to retire in June 2022.

A running rebrand

Puig hasn’t let those good years left in her go to waste. During recovery from one of her surgeries, she took up running. At first, it simply was a way to move—and one that didn’t strain her recovering shoulder. But it soon became a source of “peace and a lot of mental clarity” for her, both of which had been hard to come by since the start of 2017. 

And then, once she retired, it became even more than that. It became the means by which she satisfied the “competitive energy” that tennis once had satisfied.

So, she channeled her competitive edge into it. As soon as she discovered that running “gives me a purpose to wake up every single morning,” she explains, “and to work hard,” it no longer became just a recreational activity, it became a new passion.

Monica Puig sports Athleta’s Pacesetter Ultra High Rise 7/8 Tight and the Ultimate Longline Bra / Courtesy of Athleta

The new reality confounded her former tennis coaches. Puig says, “They actually kind of get annoyed with me because they say, ‘So when I told you to run a mile because it would help your fitness, you cried every single time. [But] now, you’re running more than just a mile.’”

Admittedly, they had a point. It’s one thing to run a mile. It’s another thing to run a marathon. That goal was inspired by her soon-to-be husband, former Georgia Tech tennis player, Nathan Rakitt. Puig’s partner had run a few marathons before they started dating. After they got together, Puig wanted to join him, but couldn’t commit to the training while playing professional tennis.

As soon as she retired, though, they set their sights on the 2022 New York City Marathon, which was set for one week before they got married.

It hooked her. Puig loved it for the challenge as much as she loved it for the health benefits. It was a test of “how far I could push my body, how far I could push my mind” at the same time that it was something that “kept me in shape,” she explains. Plus, it was euphoric—that feeling of crossing the finish line of a marathon is unbeatable.

Since, she’s run three more of the six World Marathon Majors. With two left to go, Puig isn’t ruling out the possibility of completing them all and earning the Six Star Medal. “It’s on my radar,” she says, but it isn’t her primary focus.

The transition to Ironman

With long-distance running under her belt, the athlete was on the search for another challenge. She and Rakitt landed on Ironman. “Suddenly running 13 miles didn’t really feel like such a burden,” she says, so they opted to “add swimming and biking into the mix.”

In September, the Ironman World Championship is taking place in Nice, France. There, she will toe the line for her first full Ironman. It didn’t come about so much by design as it did by fate. Puig had planned to “wait a few years” before taking on the full race. “But when I got this opportunity and this slot, I thought, ‘I have to grab it. I have to take it. I have to run with it,’” she says.

With five months to train and a wealth of inspiration to work with, she’s buckling down and “giving [herself] the best opportunity” to perform.

When asked why she picked up running marathons and, subsequently, Ironmans, Puig doesn’t have a fleshed-out answer. “I still really don’t really have the words to describe why we suddenly started doing it,” she remarks. Regardless, she’s glad she did. “It brings a tremendous amount of satisfaction and happiness to my life that I found something else other than tennis” to put energy toward.

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A post shared by Monica Puig (@monicaace93)

A new mentality and new gear to match

As a tennis player, Puig was “never comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Her mental strength allowed her to “think [her] way out of some uncomfortable situations,” but she never chose to embrace it. As a runner and an Ironman contender, embracing discomfort comes with the territory.

Maybe it’s getting older, maybe it’s “growth,” or maybe it’s “understanding myself” and “the way that I function” better, she notes. Regardless, as a runner and an Ironman contender, “I’m able to withstand a lot more and I’m able to accept the uncomfortable moments a lot better,” Puig says.

More than that, Puig has learned to temper her expectations in her new endeavors in a way that she never could with tennis. Because she’s more comfortable with herself now, she can approach races with a better mentality: “I might not be the fastest, or I might not win” but “I’ve put in the work, and whatever happens, I'm going to be happy with [the result],” she says.

Not only is Puig outfitted mentally for success, she’s likewise literally outfitted for success. Her partnership with Athleta and participation in the Power of She Collective has done a lot in the way of supporting her through her retirement and inspiring her newfound passions. But it has also done a lot in the way of dressing her for her new journey. 

Right after signing on with the brand in 2022, she repped a tennis line. And now, the runner is doing the same for Athleta’s new running line, Run. Released on April 16, the collection boasts everything from leggings and shorts to sports bras, tops and jackets, all made specifically for running.

Monica Puig sports Athleta’s Pacesetter Ultra High Rise 7/8 Tight and the Ultimate Longline Bra / Courtesy of Athleta

Much like her role in the Power of She, which taught her that “women don't really have to settle for one thing,” the new running collection is a testament to uniqueness. “We’re not all made the same,” and Athleta’s running collection is meant to reflect that. “Everybody can [wear] it,” she states.

But, more than that, Puig likes the collection for its feel. As a part of the Power of She Collective, she had the chance to test the gear and provide feedback to Athleta as they worked to perfect it. So, the final collection is certainly something she can stand behind. “It’s comfortable. It’s fast. It’s super beautiful,” Puig says.