SPORTS PERSONALITY
Venus Williams
Since Winning the EMMA Award
Venus Williams is an American Professional Tennis Player. In July 2008, she won her fifth Wimbledon singles title and the appropriately named Venus Rosewater Trophy. In 2009, Venus and Serena Williams became the first African American women to buy shares of an NFL team when they joined the Miami Dolphins’ ownership group.
In 2010, Venus co-authored the New York Times bestseller Come to Win: Business Leaders, Artists, Doctors, and Other Visionaries on How Sports Can Help You Top Your Profession, in which she interviewed successful individuals including Richard Branson and Condoleezza Rice about their early athletic experiences. Venus and Serena went on to defeat Czech Republic tennis stars Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in the doubles final at the Summer 2012 London Olympic Games, giving the sisters a total of four Olympic gold medals.
Venus continues to compete. At 39, she was the oldest player to enter the 2019 Wimbledon field. A former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, Venus Williams has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, five at Wimbledon and two at the U.S. Open, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. The film King Richard was released in 2021. It is an autobiography of Venus Williams’ rise to success while being trained by her father, Richard Williams, played by Will Smith, and went on to win an Oscar in 2022.
Venus is also a champion for equal pay for women in tennis, has her clothing line called EleVen, her own interior design company, and promotes gender equality.
Background (Before 2001)
Venus Williams was born in Lynwood, California, to tennis coach parents. She and her sister Serena attended Rick Macci’s tennis academy, where Macci noticed the sisters and provided additional coaching.
Venus went professional in 1994 and soon attracted attention for her powerful serves and ground strokes. In 1995, the sisters’ father, Richard, pulled Venus and Serena out of Macci’s academy and took over all their coaching. His decision was based partly on racial problems the girls had suffered, claiming that he heard parents of white players talk about the Williams sisters in a derogatory manner during tournaments.
In 2000, Venus won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and she successfully defended her titles in 2001, making her the sixth woman in history to win the singles titles at both Wimbledon and U.S. Open in consecutive years. At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Venus won gold medals in the singles competition and the doubles event with Serena.
