Serena Williams isn’t going to let her daughter become a professional athlete if she isn’t going to get paid what she’s worth.
Alexis Ohanian and Williams have made it clear what their one requirement is, if their seven-year-old daughter, Olympia, wants to follow in her mother’s footsteps and dominate her respective field.
“We were watching the final of the [women’s] World Cup in 2019 from our rented house in Wimbledon,” Ohanian said while a speaker at ADWEEK’s Brandweek conference.
“Olympia was running around in her Alex Morgan jersey, and I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if she played on a national team one day?’
“And Serena was like, ‘Not until they pay her what she’s worth.’ And I was like, ‘touché, okay, challenge accepted.’ And that’s what motivated me to buy a team and help be a part of the change.”
In 2020, Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, became a lead investor for the L.A. based women’s professional soccer team, Angel City FC.
While doing so, Ohanian and Williams also made sure their daughter had a stake in the club as well. Officially making the then five-year-old Olympia, the youngest co-owner in professional sports.
Ohanian put his money where his mouth was and accepted the challenge of helping to make that sure professional female athletes receive what they are worth.
Then in September the club became the most valuable in women’s sports history when the NWSL ratified the $250 million purchase of a controlling stake to Disney chief executive Bob Iger and TV journalist Willow Bay.
Their involvement instantly raised hopes that the entire league is in line for a payday.
And being paid your worth is something the decorated Williams knows all too much about.
Over the course of her career, Williams made $94.8 million. The most ever by a female tennis player, doubling up the second closest, who coincidentally enough is her sister Venus, who has earned $42.6 million.
While a near $95 million is no joke, it pales in comparison to Williams’ male counterparts.
Novak Djokovic has earned $184,480,269 so far in his career, followed by Rafael Nadal at $134,946,100 and Roger Federer at $130,594,339.
The Grand Slam tournaments offer equal prize money to men and women, while the WTA and ATP tours do not.
For example, at last year’s Italian Open, the men’s event had a total purse of $8,637,966, while the women’s event was $3,572,618.
The men’s purse was more than double the women’s purse.
If that’s still the case by the time Williams and Ohanian’s daughter, Olympia, embarks on her journey as professional athlete, don’t plan on seeing the young Williams compete.
Olympia’s mother, arguably the greatest female tennis player of all time, retired in September 2022, following her storied career in which she won 23 Grand Slam women’s single titles.
The second most of all-time, trailing only Margaret Court who has 24.
It stands to believe that during her playing career, Williams was worth far more than the $95 million she earned.
Williams is one of the greatest athletes of all-time. Period. Male or female. She dominated her sport in ways others could only dream of.
And she is going to make sure that if her daughter chooses to become a professional athlete, she will be paid what she’s worth.
As Ohanian put it, ‘challenge accepted.’
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