Well Deserved: Serena Williams Named Sports Illustrated’s 2015 Sportsperson Of

But she just received a special consolation prize: She’s been named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year.

Tennis superstar Serena Williams tops the American Pharoah as Sports Illustrated’s 2015 Sportsperson of the Year.

“As I always say, it takes a village it’s not just one person”, she said. This is not just an accomplishment for me, but for my whole team and all my fans. I am beyond honored.

Serena is the first individual woman to be selected to the honor since track champion Mary Decker in 1983. She fell two wins short of becoming the first women’s tennis player to win all four Grand Slams in one season since Steffi Graf in 1988. (King shared it with John Wooden.) While you may be familiar with her court stats, countless honors, and highest serve speed, here are five things you may not know about Serena Williams. In 2000, years before #BlackLivesMatter, she boycotted a tournament in Hilton Head, S.C., to protest the Confederate flag flying over the state capitol in Columbia.

The world No. 1 stopped at the 2km mark of her Serena Williams Live Ultimate Run, held at Miami Beach, and hopped into a cab, which took her to the finish line, confirmed the WTA website. And it seems one of the most significant factors that went into the magazine’s choice was how Williams confronted a painful incident from her past.

American Pharoah was a runaway (hahahaha) victor in an online SI poll that gauged reader support for various candidates, tallying 47 percent of the vote.

Speaking about Williams cover photo on the magazine, managing editor, Christian Stone wrote on SI.com, “her idea, intended…to express her own ideal of femininity, strength, power”.

Williams played in 56 matches in 2015, losing only three.

Serena Williams may have suffered a crushing defeat when she failed to earn a calendar Grand Slam after losing in the US Open finals this year, but that didn’t stop Sports Illustrated from naming her the 2015 Sportsperson of the Year.

“Serena is happy”, Hercik said on set of the shoot. I love you guys!

“Men’s sports has dominated until recently, when women’s sports has grown in popularity, and the competition is better than ever”, explained Fichtenbaum. The piece quoted rival Agnieszka Radwańska’s coach saying of his charge, “It’s our decision to keep her as the smallest player in the Top 10, because, first of all, she’s a woman and wants to be a woman”.