Boris Becker and Michael Stich won gold in doubles at the 1992 Olympic Games. The tennis legends were rivals and had a complicated relationship for a long time.
They stood together on tennis’s Mount Olympus: 33 years ago today, Boris Becker and Michael Stich won the gold medal in doubles at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. The triumph did not unite the two rivals. Their most emotional moment came many years after the end of their respective careers.
Before the Olympics, it was still unclear whether the two would even play together. The tennis stars pulled themselves together because they had their sights set on the big goal: Olympic gold.
The difficult relationship between tennis giants Becker and Stich
“The two didn’t speak a word to each other at the time,” revealed former Davis Cup team captain Niki Pilic at a later date.
He went on to say: “It took a lot of diplomatic skill. Both were world-class players, highly motivated, but I had to bring them together.”
Late in the evening, when it was time to discuss tactics for the next day, Pilic ran back and forth between the two players’ rooms, relaying messages from one to the other.
“It cost me years of my life,” he said later: “I had to lie a lot.” Becker and Stich never sat at the same table once in Barcelona, and they didn’t speak a word to each other when they changed sides.
Clear division of roles at the Olympics
The roles were always clearly defined when Becker and Stich were on the same tennis court at the same time. Becker was always the hero of the crowd, always the winner of hearts, someone who his long-time manager Ion Tiriac once said was the capital of German tennis.
And then there was Stich. Highly intelligent, aloof in a northern German way, sometimes even arrogant. Nobody loved the Pinneberg native, but he was respected for his perfect game on good days.
Becker loses his temper: “Kiss my ass.”
The contrasting characters couldn’t get along and made this clear to each other so often that at some point there was no turning back.
Nevertheless, the two tennis stars managed to survive the difficult and close matches on their way to the Olympic final and advance to the final against South Africans Wayne Ferreira and Piet Norval.
In the final, Becker was seething with rage at times: he shouted, he raged, he completely lost it. “Kiss my ass,” yelled the Wimbledon winner—so loud that the scorching heat above Center Court in Barcelona became even more intense.
Two tie-break thrillers in the Olympic final
Becker and Stich had squandered what felt like a thousand break points, and once again it was Becker who smashed an easy ball into the net. Stich, on the other hand, managed to keep his cool.
In the end, both were fully focused in the important moments of the match. They won the first set in a tie-break, lost the second, but then prevailed again in another tie-break to take a 2-1 lead in sets. Becker/Stich won the decisive fourth set 6-3 and thus became Olympic champions together.
The two legends had achieved something together, but it did not unite them. The fact that they embraced for several seconds after the match point in Barcelona remained a snapshot in time.
When Becker celebrated with the German team that evening, Stich was already on the plane home. He had “no desire” for a cheerful evening of socializing. The “player Stich” remained true to himself. Becker too: “We just don’t like each other.”
Stich stands by Becker in his darkest hour
Even after both had ended their careers and pursued their own business ventures, the greatest German players of their era largely avoided each other.
But there was still a very emotional moment to come. In 2022, Becker was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in the UK for bankruptcy. Becker ultimately spent seven months behind bars and was then released.
He later reported: “Michael Stich wrote me a three-page letter.” Becker had to pause and try to hold back the tears, but he couldn’t.
Stich had written him “great words” that touched him deeply, even with some distance. His longtime rival was there for him in one of his most difficult moments and stood by him. This showed the special bond between the two tennis stars, despite their long-standing rivalry.
