Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski was in a planned break for treatment for breast cancer when she won Olympic bronze in mixed doubles with Felix Auger-Aliassime in August in Paris.
Dabrowski revealed her diagnosis and treatment timeline on her Instagram account on Tuesday.
The Ottawa native, 32, said she made the decision to have a slight delay in treatment in the summer after two surgeries so she could compete at Wimbledon and the Olympics.
Dabrowski said she first noticed a lump in 2023 and was told not to worry by a doctor after an examination. The next year, it was bigger and she went for a biopsy.
“The preliminary results came back that day: cancer,” Dabrowski wrote. “These are words you never expect to hear, and in an instant your life or the life of a loved one turns upside down.”
After the surgeries, she said she needed help to toss the ball from a coach while practising her serve because she couldn’t throw it high enough.
But Dabrowski overcame the challenge on the biggest stages in her sport, hitting the podium at the Olympics and then winning the season-ending WTA Finals women’s doubles title with New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe.
Dabrowski said she wasn’t comfortable sharing her story until recently.
“Early on in my diagnosis, I was afraid of cancer becoming a part of my identity forever. I don’t feel that way anymore. It is a privilege to call myself a survivor,” she wrote.
The three-time Grand Slam champion (two mixed doubles titles, one women’s doubles championship) said her story has changed the way she views life and tennis.
“If you saw me smiling more on court in the past six months, it was genuine. That wasn’t always the case,” she wrote. “While I have been actively working on improving my attitude for many years through therapy and other guidance, my cancer diagnosis was the catalyst for more sustained change.
“When the threat of losing everything I’d worked for my entire life became a real possibility, only then did I begin to authentically appreciate what I had. Loving parents and friends, amazing coaches, a doubles partner who stuck by me, a real team, access to health-care experts, and to play a game for a living.
“My mindset shifted from ‘I have to do this (play tennis and not waste my skills)’ to ‘I get to do this. Through this lens, I find it so much easier to find joy in areas of my life I previously viewed as a heavy weight.
“To cancer I say (expletive) you, but also, thank you.”