Alexis Ohanian: Tech Founder & Dad Life

A forceful world number one, her entry onto the court with her gaze fixed, her racket raised, her body turned into a manifesto. Serena Williams has not only been an unbeatable champion for decades (he has 23 grand slams) but has rewritten history.

This week receive the Princess of Asturias Sports Awardand the expectation in Oviedo is maximum. This Thursday afternoon he will participate in an open meeting with the public in which he will share his vision on sport and equality, and tickets have been sold out for days. The woman who filled stadiums also fills auditoriums.

And not only because of what he has won, but because of what he represents. The power of a woman who has won all the awards and which we summarize here in some key moments.

The sisters outside the mold

Since they appeared on the circuit, the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, have broken any preconceived ideas. A white sport in which two black women triumphed, two African-American women who did not ask for forgiveness but rather brought out all their physique, their temperament, their power… Theirs was a double struggle.

The love of his life

Serena Williams met Alexis Ohanian, the love of her life and father of her two daughters, in Rome. He is the typical geek, a computer nerd, from Silicon Valley, founder of Reddit… and she is the goddess of the track. But there was Serena, defying the script again. In 2017 she won the Australian Open two months pregnant, another statement, another declaration of intentions. Ohanian is a powerful investor who promotes activism through networks and whose appearance, white, with a beard and a Mark Zuckerberg-style dress, confires him to be a ‘geek’.

Motherhood as a flag

Motherhood came like an earthquake and marked a before and after. In her first birth – Olympia was born in 2017 – she suffered an emergency cesarean section, pulmonary embolisms, and had to stay in bed for six weeks. “I was about to die,” he later confessed.. But he came back. Of course he did, and he competed and won.

Victories that helped her tell her story that, again, had nothing to do with what was expected of her. Motherhood sometimes hurts and admitting it doesn’t make you any less strong. Her public discussions of mental health, motherhood, and career put her back in the spotlight.

The body as ideology

Like when at Roland Garros, in 2018, Serena appears with a black catsuit that seemed designed by Marvel. The reason was medical, to avoid clots, but the tournament later banned it. She responded with a smile and a clear message: “Queens bleed too.” That body that the world had used to judge her became her best argument. Serena fought for the female body not to adapt to sport, but rather sport to the female body.

The power of being a mother

It is usually common and sometimes serves to break a career. Being a mother changes a woman’s life and Serena, consciously, decided that her life was going to be different but her career would continue at the top. He did not want to hide his fatigue or guilt, and spoke of the difficult return, of the sleepless nights, of missing his daughter’s first steps because he was training. And he turned it into a global debate.

Controversy with Nike

In that tennis battle, when Nike was criticized for reducing payments to pregnant athletes, Serena lobbied and got the brand to review its policy. She then gave her voice to the ‘Dream Crazier’ advert, which celebrated the “craziness” of women who don’t conform. The message was clear: being a mother does not take away your power, it gives you another type of power and you must use it.

The goodbye

She has always been aware of her weight in the world of sports and that her statements served to give substance to the idea of ​​woman. In 2022, Serena published an essay in Vogue titled ‘Evolving away from tennis’ in which she He was not talking about retiring but about evolving, although many saw it as goodbye.

Williams wanted to have another daughter – Adira was born in 2023 -, dedicate more time to her family and herself, and rejected the concept that retiring is recognizing that one is no longer in shape. With two daughters and a business empire, Serena played her last official match (to date), on September 2, 2022 at the US Open, her home.

A forceful world number one, her entry onto the court with her gaze fixed, her racket raised, her body turned into a manifesto. Serena Williams has not only been an unbeatable champion for decades (he has 23 grand slams) but has rewritten history.