At just three months old, Serena William’s daughter, Alexis Olympia, is already showing signs of being a superstar athlete.
“Dad & I hit the gym hard today,” Alexis’ official Instagram account, run by Williams and husband Alexis Ohanian, posted on Monday, December 11, alongside a photo of the little one adorably holding up her arms and putting her hands into two fists.
The tennis pro recently taught her daughter the importance of perseverance and sportsmanship in a heartfelt commercial for Gatorade shared by the company on November 20. “Baby girl, I won’t mind if you play tennis badly. I won’t mind if you choose to never pick up a racket,” Williams, 36, said as she held a stand-in for her daughter, who according to AdAge, was sick on the day of filming. “But I beg you, in this game of life, please keep playing no matter what.”
She added: “Sometimes you’ll score goals, sometimes you won’t. But the goals you set, you’ll reach together … You’ll find the courage to stand tall, work harder and speak louder on whatever playing field you choose in life. So keep playing, my girl. Keep playing.”
Williams and the Reddit cofounder, 34, welcomed their daughter on September 1 in Palm Beach, Florida. The couple then tied the knot on November 16 in a star-studded ceremony at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans.
Following the birth of her first child, Williams penned a note to her own mother on Reddit. “Dear Mom, You are one of the strongest women I know,” she wrote on September 19. “I was looking at my daughter (OMG, yes, I have a daughter ?) and she has my arms and legs! My exact same strong, muscular, powerful, sensational arms and body. I don’t know how I would react if she has to go through what I’ve gone through since I was a 15 year old and even to this day.”
“But mom, I’m not sure how you did not go off on every single reporter, person, announcer and quite frankly, hater, who was too ignorant to understand the power of a black woman,” Williams continued. “I am proud we were able to show them what some women look like. We don’t all look the same. We are curvy, strong, muscular, tall, small, just to name a few, and all the same: we are women and proud!”
