Venus Williams Considers Life Beyond the Court
variety.comClaudia Eller Co-Editor-in-ChiefVenus Williams, whom I interviewed as one of our six Power of Women New York honorees, clearly has broken barriers.
And she has great admiration for other women who have done the same in their respective realms.As for her biggest role models, Williams says she really doesn’t have to look beyond her own mother and four sisters.
However, “I definitely look up to a different, interesting set of women,” she says. “Of course, who doesn’t love Oprah and Michelle Obama.”Someone else Williams greatly admires is Anni Albers, the late German artist known for her bold, geometrically patterned textiles and prints. “She ended up having to work in textiles because that was what was kind of accepted during that time,” says Williams. “But she was an incredible artist who really just broke down barriers for women.” Williams also singled out the late multiple world-record-holding Olympic champion Wilma Rudolph, who despite being diagnosed with polio as a child and told she would never walk again, pursued her dream to be an international track and field star: “I don’t know how you become an Olympic champion having polio, but she did.
Incredible.”Williams, of course, is herself an Olympic champion, and on Feb. 25, 2002, became the first Black tennis player to be ranked No.
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