Venus Williams (born June 20, 1980) is a tennis champion who was born in Lansing, Michigan. She is the daughter of Richard and Oracene Williams and the sister of another tennis champion, Serena Williams.
When the Williams sisters (who are five in total) were young, they were moved to Compton, California. There, they sometimes had to dodge bullets while practicing tennis at local public courts. Their father Richard used to take all five of his daughters to the courts in hopes that someday at least one of them would reach sporting glory and move them into a better place.
Venus as a young girl became one of California's top young tennis players, and she and her sister Serena shared the top seed as California's best young players for a long time.
Venus turned professional in the 1990s and went on to have a very lucrative tennis career. She has garnered many important championships, including a Gold medal at the Sydney Summer Olympics in 2000, the Fed Cup, the 1999 French Open doubles (with sister Serena as her partner), the Oklahoma City Tennis championship, the Italian Open, the Hamburg Open, the Wimbledon championship, and the US Open.
When Venus and Serena won the 1999 French Open doubles title, they became the first pair of sisters to win a doubles title in the 20th century.
In 2003, Williams played at the 2003 Wimbledon finals despite suffering stomach cramps. She lost to her sister Serena, 6-4, 4-6, 2-6.
Williams' older sister, Yetunde Price, was killed by gunshots in the Compton area as she and a male driver passed by inside a car, on the morning of September 14, 2003.