--- title: Serena Williams Sportsperson of the Year Acceptance Speech description: Serena Williams was officially honored as the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year on Tuesday night in New York City. canonical: https://time.com/4152274/serena-williams-sportsperson-of-the-year-acceptance-speech/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-16T21:20:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:56.290Z og:title: Watch Serena Williams's Inspiring Sportsperson of the Year Acceptance Speech og:description: “I’m not standing here because I’ve just kind of cruised on." og:url: https://time.com/4152274/serena-williams-sportsperson-of-the-year-acceptance-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd45a43007de50020/698875c5bc6cfc233b3dae28/serena-williams-sportsperson-of-the-year-acceptance.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year Ceremony 2015 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Serena Williams's Inspiring Sportsperson of the Year Acceptance Speech twitter:description: “I’m not standing here because I’ve just kind of cruised on." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd45a43007de50020/698875c5bc6cfc233b3dae28/serena-williams-sportsperson-of-the-year-acceptance.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Serena Williams's Inspiring Sportsperson of the Year Acceptance Speech > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=607faae5-a0cd-4eb3-8c07-6f2fdf4b9de2&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Serena Williams on Her Biggest Influence [Watch (HLS stream): Serena Williams on Her Biggest Influence](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zdwprGtE.m3u8) (0:58)  _Published 2014-04-24. Serena Williams talks about the importance of family._  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Dec 16, 2015 9:20 PM UTC  SI 2015 Sportsperson of the Year Serena Williams attends Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year Ceremony 2015 at Pier 60 on December 15, 2015 in New York City. SI 2015 Sportsperson of the Year Serena Williams attends Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year Ceremony 2015 at Pier 60 on December 15, 2015 in New York City. Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Sports Illustrated  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Dec 16, 2015 9:20 PM UTC After a dominant year in tennis during which she won three of the four majors and finished the season with a 53-3 record, [Serena Williams](http://time.com/4147647/serena-williams-sports-illustrated-sportsperson-year-tennis/) was officially honored as the [Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year](http://time.com/4147183/serena-williams-sports-illustrated-sportsperson-year/) on Tuesday night in New York City. Williams is the first woman in 32 years and the first black woman ever to win the award outright, and her acceptance speech spoke to this fact. The 34-year-old tennis pro encouraged women everywhere to keep striving for greatness. “For all the ladies out there, yes we can do it,” she said. “My hope by winning this award \[is that I\] can inspire many, many, many more women … to stand right here on this podium and accept another ‘Sportsperson of the Year,’ so yes ladies it can be done.” Williams addressed the [body-shaming](http://time.com/3964758/body-shaming-black-female-athletes/) and criticism she has had to deal with throughout her career. “I’ve had people look down on me, put me down because I didn’t look like them — I look stronger,” she said. “I’ve had people look past me because \[of\] the color of my skin, I’ve had people overlook me because I was a woman, I’ve had critics say I \[would\] never win another Grand Slam when I was only at number seven — and here I stand today with 21 Grand Slam titles, and I’m still going.” She also spoke about the struggles she has overcome to get to this point of success in her life. “I’m not standing here because I’ve just kind of cruised on. I’ve had my share of ups and downs. I’ve had many struggles. I’ve had blood clots in both my lungs at the same time. I’ve lived through tragedies and controversies — and horses,” she said, cracking a joke about whether she or Triple Crown winner American Pharoah was more deserving of the night’s honor. Watch the full speech below: ## Transcript The most influential person for me has always been hard just to name one single person, but I would say mostly my family. My mom, my dad, and my sisters. They just, we grew up in such an environment where it was all about family and all about, you know, supporting each other and just always making sure that we protected each other. So even to this day I still live with my sister. We still play tennis together. We do so, so, so many things and so, it's like a family unit for me that's just so important. Being on the Time 100 list is really exciting to be considered as one of the most, 100 most influential people, for me, it's great. I just try to do the best I can everyday. And I always try to stay positive through the ups and the downs and often try to keep a smile on my face, so hopefully I can influence people out there to just be the best that they can. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4152274/serena-williams-sportsperson-of-the-year-acceptance-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4152274/serena-williams-sportsperson-of-the-year-acceptance-speech/"},"headline":"Watch Serena Williams's Inspiring Sportsperson of the Year Acceptance Speech","datePublished":"2015-12-16T21:20:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:02:56.290Z","description":"“I’m not standing here because I’ve just kind of cruised on.\"","url":"https://time.com/4152274/serena-williams-sportsperson-of-the-year-acceptance-speech/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Athletes","tennis","Sports Illustrated","serena williams","Sports"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd45a43007de50020/698875c5bc6cfc233b3dae28/serena-williams-sportsperson-of-the-year-acceptance.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd45a43007de50020/698875c5bc6cfc233b3dae28/serena-williams-sportsperson-of-the-year-acceptance.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year Ceremony 2015","caption":"SI 2015 Sportsperson of the Year Serena Williams attends Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year Ceremony 2015 at Pier 60 on December 15, 2015 in New York City.","creditText":"Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Sports Illustrated","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4152274/serena-williams-sportsperson-of-the-year-acceptance-speech/","name":"Watch Serena Williams's Inspiring Sportsperson of the Year Acceptance Speech"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Serena Williams on Her Biggest Influence","description":"Serena Williams talks about the importance of family.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zdwprGtE/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-04-24T10:24:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zdwprGtE.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4152274/serena-williams-sportsperson-of-the-year-acceptance-speech/","duration":"PT58S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4152274/serena-williams-sportsperson-of-the-year-acceptance-speech/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```