Serena Williams has had an amazing career period but this past year was especially good as she completed a “Serena Slam” complete with wins at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. She now holds four major trophies in each competition as well as the US Open. She was honored on Tuesday night with Sports Illustrated’s “Sportsperson of the Year” award. Williams delivered an awesome speech, thanking everyone in her life who’s helped her get to where she is and addressed the doubters and obstacles she had to overcome.
“I’ve had my shares ups and downs. I’ve had many struggles. I’ve had blood clots in both my lungs at the same time. I’ve lived through tragedies and controversies and horses (laughs). I had to say it; basically I’ve been through it all. I’ve had people look down on me. I’ve had people put me down because I didn’t look like them, I look stronger. I’ve had people look past me because of the color of my skin. I’ve had people overlook me because I was a woman. I had critics say I will never win another Grand Slam when I was only at number seven and now here I stand with 21 Grand Slam titles and I’m still going.”
Serena delivered a joke about the people who were mad she won the award over American Pharoah, the horse that won the Triple Crown this year. She ended the speech with an excerpt from her “favorite poet” Maya Angelou’s infamous poem “And Still I Rise”.
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