Serena Williams delivers a powerful message to her critics at Sports Illustrated ceremony

Serena Williams delivered a very powerful message to all her haters during her acceptance speech at the 2015 Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year award ceremony in New York City on Tuesday evening.

After an outstanding 2015 season, which saw her almost completing a Calendar Slam after claiming the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and a runner-up finish at the US Open, Serena spoke about the obstacles she had to go through to get to where she is right now in her acceptance speech. More importantly, Serena has addressed her critics who always have negative things to say about her despite her great accomplishments in her field of sport.

Recently, Williams’ Sports Illustrated cover received strong comments claiming that the photo was edited to make her legs look smaller. Williams didn’t particularly tackle the issue, but a very interesting message during her speech was a perfect response to all her haters. Williams closed the speech with a quote from Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise.” Below is an excerpt from Williams’ acceptance speech during the award ceremony.

“I’ve had people look down on me. I’ve had people put me down because I didn’t look like them, I look stronger. 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 had critics say I will never win another Grand Slam when I was only at number seven and now here I stand today with 21 Grand Slam titles and I’m still going. ”

Williams attended the ceremony dressed in a black lace outfit. She was reportedly accompanied by her mother Oracene Price and three sisters, Lyndrea Price, Isha Price and Venus Williams.