Black History Month: Venus and Serena Williams Clubbed With LeBron James and Michael Jordan for Unparalleled Impact on Coco Gauff

Former US Open champion Coco Gauff shares some an amazing perspective as she joins the celebration of Black History Month. In her recent appearance in a podcast, Gauff delved deeper into sports being a significant part of black people’s lives. Highlighting the Juneteenth holiday which remembers the end of slavery to acknowledging the diverse yet rich culinary culture of black Americans in New Orleans or Louisiana, Gauff speaks to her fans revealing one of the five significant cultural facts that left her impressed.

Coco Gauff has always been vocal about the oppression of marginalized communities. Her incredible advocacy for equal pay between ATP and WTA players brought her to Time Magazine’s Woman of the Year recognition in 2024. Now on Black History Month, Gauff shares her perspective on the relationship between sports and Black American Identity.

“Sports is the key to the world” for Coco Gauff  and a way to “escape the circumstances”

In the WTA Insider Podcast, Coco Gauff shared her perspective about sports impacting people’s lives like Micheal Jordan, LeBron James, and Serena Williams. Gauff said- “Just sports. It’s such a huge thing in our culture really, sports. It’s been an escape for so many people in urban communities and poor communities to escape the circumstances that they were given. You see so many athletes changing, stopping generational trauma happening and finding a way out through sports,”

Citing the examples of famous Black people, Gauff further added- “If you look at just individual athlete stories like LeBron James, Michael Jordan, even Serena and Venus, and their lives and how they were able to make something great out of nothing. It’s pretty inspiring. I think sports is the key to the world because all cultures and all countries pretty much participate in sports. So, if you look at, not even just at Black athletes but just athletes in general, you see so many stories,”

While Gaff mentioned many Black stalwarts, Serena Williams held a special place in her heart. This American tennis prodigy admires Williams as a role model and fans can understand that from her statements.

Coco Gauff speaks about Serena Williams’s contribution to Black Culture

In this same podcast, Coco Gauff especially mentioned Williams’s contribution. She said- “I don’t think anything I’ll do will compare to what Serena Williams did. I think for me greatness is… I think multiple people can be great. Obviously, there’s only going to be one greatest of all time and I just feel like no matter what I do, I don’t think anything I’ll do will compare to what Serena [Williams] did for the sport and the game and with the amount of times she won, But I definitely would like to be, when I retire, people, when they think of the best players, I’d like to be in that conversation. So hopefully I can do better and continue to do better,”

Coco Gauff’s statement about sport’s influence on Black Culture truly impressed her fans. Gauff not only showed a humble gesture to remember her legends but she also explained it with much grace and maturity. Following her response, it feels like Gauff deserved every inch of the recognition that she received this year from Time Magazine.

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