00:00One thing I didn't expect, I didn't expect for other athletes to ask me for photos or
00:08anything, which was weird because my teammates, you know, Taylor, he was like, you won the
00:14US Open.
00:15I was like, I don't know.
00:16I don't know.
00:17It was just very weird.
00:18I wasn't expecting, again, the Village to be people coming up to ask photos with me
00:23and some people I looked up to.
00:25The coolest interaction, there was a lot of cool ones.
00:27I met Katie Ledecky in the elevator and Emma said that she was eating like ground beef
00:33and sour cream, but I'm pretty sure it was yogurt and granola, even on a debate like
00:38that.
00:39I hadn't seen Katie since to confirm whether it was sour cream and yogurt or, I mean, sour
00:44cream and ground beef or yogurt and granola.
00:48I had a talk to Noah Liles, which was really cool.
00:51I got to, I took a lot of gems from him, I think, you know, it was a natural conversation,
00:56but, you know, he's the type of person that I think you can just learn a lot about confidence
01:01and believing in yourself from.
01:03And obviously, I met Sha'Carri, I met Simone Bowles, I met Suni Lee, there's just a list
01:08goes on and on.
01:09It was very cool.
01:10Obviously, the whole U.S. men's basketball team, so yeah, I could sit here for like hours
01:15talking about all the cool people that I met.
01:18And I finally got a picture with Rafa.
01:19I traded pens with him.
01:21I didn't post the picture, but I probably should have.
01:23I traded pens with Rafa.
01:25Carlos didn't have any pens, so I didn't, I didn't let him be in the selfie, so it's
01:29just me and Rafa.
01:31And who else?
01:32Oh, I finally got a pic with Andy, which I always wanted to ask.
01:36So I got the, the two goals were to get a picture with them too.
01:41So I got, those were my two goals.
01:42And ironically, they were tennis players, so I could have gotten at any tournament.
01:45But I don't know, I just felt maybe, I don't know, I had the confidence.
01:48I was like, it's Olympics, you know, other athletes were asking them, so I felt not like
01:53out of the ordinary, whereas here, they probably don't get asked as much at tennis tournaments.
01:58You know, you have so many brand endorsements and everything, and you're probably one of
02:01the highest paid athletes, and congratulations on that, first of all.
02:06And you've been so vocal about, you know, equal pay in a lot of places, and with the
02:10growth of women's sports right now, where do you see your role is in this space?
02:15And how do you see that?
02:16Because a lot of people see you as a role model.
02:17Yeah, I think for me, it's just knowing your worth and then standing on it.
02:22And if anything, like I've learned in the past Olympics, it's really the female athletes
02:27that are getting most of the attention when it comes to media.
02:29Like all I'm hearing about is the women's gymnastics, women's swimming.
02:33So I think it's just important that we continue as, you know, athletes who, in sports like
02:38tennis, continuing to push that, because I will say tennis is the forefront of equal
02:42pay.
02:43And we're not there in every tournament, but in the slams, it's a big step.
02:47And so I think as tennis players, we should also recognize, be grateful for people like
02:52Billie Jean King and Venus Williams in the original nine for setting that standard so
02:56long ago.
02:58And I think through tennis, we can also push that into other sports.
03:02And I'm very happy to see the WNBA, that they're already putting initiatives in place to get
03:07that prize, or I don't know if they call it prize money, but salary up for those players.
03:13And tennis, like I said, we're not there yet in every tournament, but I definitely
03:17think we have the personalities, we have the talent, we have the storylines to get there.
03:22And I think it's just not only like in sports, but in every workplace in general.
03:26I mean, obviously that's not only a thing that goes on in sports, but other workplaces.
03:30And I think just as women, we just continue to support each other and starting our own
03:34businesses.
03:35That's one of the things I want to do.
03:37It's just if you can't, you know, if they won't give you a way, you make your own way.
03:41And that's something that my dad taught me.
03:42So that's a lot of things that I try to do with the brands that I work with to make sure
03:47that they have, you know, places in place for women and especially women of color.
03:52Because you know, it's one thing to be representative of that brand, but you also want to make sure
03:56that people who aren't getting the cameras and the flasher, it's showing not just on
04:00the outside, but within.
04:01So I try to try my best, I'm still young, I'm still learning.
04:04So hopefully, you know, I can inspire other brands and girls and men to do the same thing.
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