Serena Williams for President: After a Harrowing Childbirth, a Heroic Comeback

The beautiful Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. popped out into the world this world having no idea who her mother is—tennis world-champ Serena Willams—nor what her mom was about to go through in the next few hours: a life-threatening pulmonary embolism that would most likely have gone undetected if Williams hadn't lobbied hard to get a CT-scan.

Williams had to plead for a scan and a heparin IV drip because the nurses and doctors ignored her initial requests, despite the fact that she's Serena Williams. They eventually listened, likely because she is in fact Serena Williams, and the treatment saved her life.

Too many black women in the U.S. aren't as lucky when they face complications in childbirth, and evidence keeps mounting about how racial bias in hospitals is leading to a rising rate of maternal mortality among African American women—three to four times as high, according to the Centers for Disease Control, as the already exorbitant and rising overall rate of maternal mortality in the U.S. (See this NPR story about Shalon Irving for a shocking and heartbreaking recent example of a woman who wasn't as lucky as Serena Williams.)

If anything good could come of the 36-year-old Serena Williams's terrifying near-miss, it would be more visibility on how institutional racism among doctors and medical staff have deadly consequences—along with long-overdue awareness and persistent efforts in the medical community to recognize bias (conscious or unconscious) and interrupt it when it happens.

Meanwhile, off the court (which Williams plans to jump back onto in March, at the Indian Wells tournament in California), she puts a lot of her time and resources into investing in women and African Americans who start tech ventures; her own husband Alexis Ohanian is a co-founder of Reddit. The philanthropic programs Williams has launched to invest in education and programs to help trauma victims are marking her as a leader beyond the court. Billie Jean King said this about Williams, in Vogue's February 2018 cover story:

"Serena’s speaking like a leader and talking about making a difference in the world. Personally I’d like to see her get into politics. Why not run for president?"

Seriously, if anyone could compete... Meanwhile, here's one of the best quotes from the Vogue story:

"Olympia tries to wriggle out of the baby gym, with its dumbbell-shaped rattles, but Serena says not so fast. 'Some other seven-week-old is in the gym right now working,' she jokes."

Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., too, for president? Hell yeah. She's one ball we won't be taking our eyes off anytime soon. 

Photos by Tourism Victoria from Australia, via Wikimedia Commons