Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig explains the reason behind her '2016' bib number at Boston Marathon

Olympic gold medalist and former tennis pro Monica Puig recently revealed the reason behind her bib number at the recently concluded Boston Marathon.

Puig finished the prestigious Boston Marathon at a time of 3:50:46, running under her married name Monica Rakitt and wearing bib No. 2016. It was Puig's second marathon; she ran the 2022 New York City Marathon with then-fiance Nathan Rakitt and finished the marathon in Central Park in about four and a half hours -- a time she significantly improved on in Boston this year.

Monica Puig later stated on her Instagram stories that she has been getting a lot of questions about her bib number '2016' and if it was a coincidence. She replied that it was not and that she was given this number to commemorate her gold medal from the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.

The Puerto Rican scripted history in Rio de Janeiro by defeating Polona Hercog, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Garbie Muguruza, Laura Siegemund, Petra Kvitová, and finally Angelique Kerber.

"Gotten lots of questions asking about my bib number and if the "2016" was a coincidence. It wasn't actually The @bostonmarathon gave me this number to commemorate my gold medal in Rio 2016!" she wrote.

Puig went on to say that other former athletes were also given special numbers to honor their accomplishments, which she thought was "super cool" and "an amazing gesture."

"Other former athletes also had special numbers to commemorate their achievements which thought was super cool and such an amazing gesture!" she wrote further.

Monica Puig recalls dealing with the pressure of expectations after winning the Olympic gold medal

Monica Puig pictured during a photo shoot.

Monica Puig revealed on the Tennis Channel Inside-In podcast how difficult it was for her to deal with the pressure of expectations after winning the Olympic gold medal -- the first Puerto Rican in history to do so.

"To me, a lot of people would say, 'If you can't handle this pressure and what's going on right now, then you're not cut out for this.' That was the response," Puig said.

She also stated that players now have more resources to deal with pressure, and that their struggles with mental health are handled better than in the past.

"Nowadays, I feel like people are more understanding of the fact that we are going through all this pressure. It's more like, let's get help to see what you're going through and analyze it in a different way," she said.

The 29-year-old will next feature at the London Marathon this Sunday (April 23).

Edited by Shyam Kamal