Serena Williams is having a slightly rough start to 2016. She had to pull out of the Hopman Cup because of a knee injury. Following that, there’s been a rash of speculation that Serena is simply too old – in the tennis world – to compete at the same level she once did. Nevermind that she almost pulled off a Grand Slam in 2015, and nevermind that the sports press has spent years writing off Serena. She’s easily one of the most dissected and discussed women in professional sports, and the discussion is not always about her performance. Serena has been surprisingly open in the past year about her own struggles with body image, and how she learned to love her body. Serena gave a new interview to The Times Magazine where she tells some hard truths about what it’s like being the curvy, muscular woman in a sea of thin, waspy blondes.
Serena Williams may have the confidence to pose nude these days, but it took the curvaceous tennis champion years to get there. Williams says she used to battle body image doubts.
“I know I get flack for my physique, and it has been a struggle to love my body, but now curves are in and I’m happier in myself,” she told Britain’s The Times Magazine. Williams, 34, the winner of 21 Grand Slams in her career, says she used to compare herself to the slimmer players.
“When I was younger, it was hard seeing all these thin athletes when I had more muscular curves and was big-busted,” she says. “Just try running with DDs that are bouncing seven inches up and down! It’s distracting, not to mention dangerous, because you can tear ligaments.”
But now that she’s moved past her body image issues, she wants to help other women feel better about their individual physiques.
“Women face so many impossible ideals,” Williams says. “It’s important for me to get across that there’s more than one way to look amazing.”
Yes, it’s time once again for some real-time #BreastTalk. You know it’s one of my favorite subjects, actually. While I’m nowhere near as muscular and athletic as Serena, we have similar body types and similar breast sizes. Women with small breasts just do NOT get how being large-busted changes everything about how you dress, how you move and how you view yourself. It’s particularly remarkable that Serena maintains her elite athleticism while having DD-breasts. Is she the first major Slam winner to be so large-busted? I think she might be.
I’ve spent too much time looking at cute gym outfits meant for size-4 women with B-cups, stuff that I could never pull off. In reality, women built like me (and built like Serena) have to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to tamp down our breasts in athletic situations. At the gym, I’m wearing a minimizer under a sports bra under a baggy shirt, just so nothing will “pop out.” Serena should design a line of hardcore sports bras for big-busted athletes. I would buy them.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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