Tennis star Gabriela Dabrowski reveals she played at Wimbledon, Olympics while battling breast cancer
Canadian tennis star Gabriela Dabrowski revealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer in April 2024 in a social media post.
Dabrowski, 32, said she delayed some of her treatments so she could finish at Wimbledon and Olympic Games in Paris 2024.
“In the spring of 2023, I felt a lump in my left breast during a self-examination. A few months later, the doctor told me that it was nothing and not to worry. Well, I wasn’t. Time passed, and in the spring of 2024, I thought the lump was a little bigger,” wrote Dabrowski on Instagram.
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Gabriela Dabrowski and Felix Auger-Aliassime celebrate after winning the mixed doubles bronze medal during the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics at Stade Roland Garros. (Amber Searls-USA TODAY Sports)
“During our WTA comprehensive medical, the WTA doctor told me she wasn’t sure what it was and to go and get a scan… A phone call from the radiologist reading the images, alerting me to a lump that didn’t look like a cyst because of the uneven edge and shadowing ‘It looks ugly and I want you to get a biopsy right away.'”
“The next morning I went to Advent Health Hospital in Wesley Chapel and had a biopsy done on my left breast. The preliminary results came back that day: cancer. Those are the words you never expect to hear and in an instant your life or a loved one’s life is turned upside down.”
Dabrowski said she decided to share her story now because for a long time she “wasn’t ready to expose herself to the possible attention and questions I would have received before.”
The tennis star wanted to “work everything out and solve things privately.”
“Fast forward through 2 surgeries at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, recovery, rehab, @patrickdaciek throwing the ball on my serve because my left arm couldn’t be raised high enough (this was 2 weeks before Nottingham) little delay in further treatment able to compete at Wimbledon and the Olympics, radiation + fatigue (between Toronto and the US Open), and starting endocrine therapy, finishing the season at the highest possible level… it all seems surreal.”
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From left to right, Gabriela Dabrowski (CAN), Erin Routliffe (NZL), Taylor Townsend (USA) and Katerina Siniakova (CZE) pose with the finalists and championship trophies after the 2024 Wimbledon Championships Women’s Doubles Final at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet club. (Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports)
Despite her battle with breast cancer, Dabrowski not only competed at Wimbledon and the Olympics, but also had a lot of success.
Dabrowski and her doubles partner Erin Routliffe lost in the Wimbledon final, and at the Olympic Games in Paris she won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles competition for Canada.
“My intentions in sharing some of my experience are to emphasize the quality of life one can maintain when cancer is detected early, when you have access to doctors and other healthcare professionals who are highly skilled and dedicated to their craft, when you care for your mental, physical and spiritual well-being, and when you surround yourself with people who truly have your back (and front),” Dabrowski wrote.
“At the beginning of my diagnosis, I was afraid that cancer would become a part of my identity forever. I no longer feel that way. It is a privilege to be able to call myself a survivor.”
Dabrowski said the diagnosis gave her a chance to see challenges through a different lens, a “lens of gratitude.”
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Gabriela Dabrowski and Felix Auger-Aliassime celebrate after winning the mixed doubles bronze medal during the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics at Stade Roland Garros. (Amber Searls-USA TODAY Sports)
She ended her post with the words: “I say cancer to… you, but also, thank you.”
Dabrowski won three doubles titles in 2024, and won 17 doubles titles in her career.
Dabrowski is also a three-time Olympian, competing in the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
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