151 venus williams is far more than a legendary tennis champion the seventime grand slam singles title holder spent years in her sport rallying for equal pay among both the men and women and williams through her collaboration with the womens tennis association a 2006 oped titled venus williams on equal pay at wimbledon and her famed play on the court she got tennis biggest tournament to erase the pay gap in 2007 two years after williams first solo win at the all england club the chairman of the tournament finally said it was time to eliminate the difference in pay an unprecedented move read venus williams on her daily diet her future related maria sharapova suspended from tennis for doping that may have been almost a decade ago but what williams accomplished has never been more relevant with wimbledon underway today williams recently spoke to abc news reflecting on what she accomplished and how far the rest of sports still has to go tennis is definitely a star for women in sports she said when asked about her leadership in the equal pay movement but other sports have a long way to go williams now 36 added that the world and sports reflect where women are in it and that theres always work to be done just this past march us womens soccer filed a wagediscrimination complaint with the equal employment opportunity commission the filing obtained by espn cited how much more revenue women in soccer generate than men despite the fact they are paid almost four times less espn reported in spite of the large discrepancies in sports like soccer williams admitted there are positive things happening as long as we set up equality well go in the right direction she said in an interview with espn two years ago williams said about her efforts a decade back a lot of players were not comfortable talking about equal prize money for whatever reason or maybe werent able to express exactly how they felt but i was williams has never been afraid to say whats on her mind and when asked by abc news about substances banned or legal as they pertain to tennis she had a simple answer its something that you just have to be aware of she said athletes like everyone else at times take supplements but just have to consult your doctors and work on that its a process but its achievable its my job to be healthy williams spoke to abc news as part of a campaign with silk promoting a plantbased diet so what an athlete puts into his or her body is something she takes seriously maria sharapova was not brought up by name but the famed tennis champion was in the news earlier this month after receiving a twoyear suspension for taking a substance that was added to the banned list in january when asked about the evolving and changing list williams said its updated every year so