Pro says winning Olympic gold medal would rank ‘higher’ than major win

One of the big storylines heading into the men’s event at the 2024 Paris Olympics is where a gold medal would rank in terms of career accomplishments. All the Tour pros have been asked the question, and most have responded with some form of “I don’t know.” French pro Matthieu Pavon had a much different answer.

While many players have proven to be downright giddy to be competing at Le Golf National, a stark contrast to the 2016 and 2020 Olympic golf events, they also have routinely admitted that as golfers they didn’t grow up with the goal of winning gold medals. Instead, it was major championship victories that filled their childhood dreams.

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Pavon’s Olympic teammate this week, Victor Perez, struck a similar tone in their joint Olympic press conference this week.

“It’s really difficult to say,” Perez began on the importance of the Olympics. “We don’t grow up like the track and field and fencing and dreaming of a Gold Medal. It wasn’t really on the radar when we were kids when your first dreams are made.”

However, he also admitted that experiencing the Opening Ceremony in Paris earlier in the week, where thousands of fellow French fans cheered on the athletes, changed his perspective on the event.

“Obviously seeing how much people obviously care and the fans, I was just shocked at how many people came to the ceremony,” Perez said. “It was raining like crazy and people were still cheering for us from balconies overlooking the Seine in Paris. Definitely it meant a lot and enhanced the feel and the wanting for the Gold Medal for sure.”

As for Pavon, he revealed that he had his eye on making the French Olympic team all year long, a goal he virtually accomplished in February when he won his first PGA Tour event, the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

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“It was one of the goals this year but it really started in January. It was something I wanted to achieve before that,” Pavon explained. “Qualifying for the PGA Tour was my first goal. Then won the tournament in Torrey and all of a sudden you’re in the mix and put forward and you’re almost guaranteed to be in the team. From that moment that I really realized and that kind of dream become really a goal that I had to prepare for.”

And while Pavon admitted that major championships seemed more important to him heading into the week, the fanfare around his home country’s Olympic Games transformed his view, and he now sees winning a gold medal this week as a bigger accomplishment than winning a major.

“The thing is, I always felt like major for golf is more important because we have not really grown up with the Olympics,” Pavon said in his press conference. “After a few days in the Olympic Village, the Opening Ceremony in Paris with all this crowd in front of the Eiffel Tower and all the great moments we spent the last few days, it really feels like a Gold Medal would be now ranked higher than a major for me.”

Pavon and Perez will begin their quests to claim golfing gold for France on Thursday. Perez heads out in the opening grouping at 3 a.m. ET, with Pavon teeing off at 6:06 a.m. ET. Golf Channel will air live coverage of the opening round beginning Thursday morning at 3 a.m. ET.