'It started with me': Serena Williams speaks out over Nike sexism storm
Tennis superstar Serena Williams has spoken out after sportswear giant Nike reversed its decision to freeze sponsorship payments for pregnant athletes.
Nike came under heavy scrutiny for freezing payments to pregnant athletes, but Williams believes her sponsor has learned its lessons from the saga.
“I understand that Nike has been really lately supporting women a lot, and it started with making a statement with me, and they said they want to make a change,” Williams said after overcoming Vitalia Diatchenko in the first round at Roland Garros.
“They want to support women that want to have families and that want to be mums.
“I’m glad that statement was made, and I know that therefore and going forward, they’re doing better.
“That’s what it’s about. It’s about learning from mistakes and doing better.”
Earlier this month several athletes, spearheaded notably by American track star Alysia Montaño, made a video calling Nike out over their treatment of pregnant athletes.
Montaño, described the extreme lengths she went to, including taping her abs together, to ensure her contract wasn’t cancelled after her pregnancy for not meeting performance standards.
Williams said she was confident Nike would continue to move with the times and update policies for women.
“I feel like as time goes on, as technology changes and as, you know, the world changes, people realise that we have to change our policies,” the American added.
“We have to look at old policies and change them. And I think that Nike wanted to do that, and they started doing that.
“And so I think they made a really bold statement by doing that with me, and I think they’re going to — I know, actually, that they’re going to continue to make that statement.”
Williams debuts new look
Serena Williams is part tennis player, part advocate, part fashion icon no matter where she goes.
Yet nowhere is that more pronounced than in Paris at the French Open, where in 2018 she shook up sports talk and rules with her famous catsuit.
Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam champion, revealed her 2019 look on Instagram over the weekend in a continuing Nike partnership with designs by Virgil Abhol.
Abhol of “Off-White” designed Williams’ look for the 2018 US Open.
His use of logo and quotations sparked an outcry over the tennis superstar’s GQ Woman of the Year cover.
The reveal prompted questions of if Williams would really play — and likely trip — on that long skirt.
She answered it Monday during day two by ditching the skirt once she walked on to Court Philippe Chatrier.