Rafael Nadal Withdraws From London Olympics

In 2008 Rafael Nadal won the gold medal in Beijing. This year, however, the defending champion will be watching from the stands.

Nadal announced today that he would not be competing in the 2012 London Olympics. The former Tennis champ said that making the decision was one of the “saddest moments” of his life.

Nadal said:

“I am not in condition to compete in the London Olympics and therefore will not travel as planned with the Spanish delegation to take part in the games. I have to think about my companions, I can’t be selfish and I have to think of what’s best for Spanish sport, especially tennis and Spanish players and give fellow sportsmen with better preparation the chance to compete. (This) is one of the saddest days of my career as one of my biggest ambitions, that of being Spain’s flag bearer in the opening ceremony of the games in London, cannot be. You can imagine how difficult it was to take this decision.”

MSNBC reports that Nadal may have pulled out of the Olympic Games due to a knee injury. Nadal didn’t mention any specific injury in his statement but the tennis player did cancel a charity match in Madrid at the beginning of the month due to a knee injury.

Nadal has not played since he suffered a surprising lost at Wimbledon this year to 100th ranked Lukas Rosol in the second round.

Do you think Rafael Nadal made the right decision to pull out of the Olympics?