[ti:Serena Williams’ Choice: Tennis or Family] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]American tennis player Serena Williams said this week [00:04.76]that she is ready to leave the sport and turn her attention to "being a mom." [00:12.32]Williams announced her decision in the magazine Vogue [00:16.56]and on her Instagram account. [00:19.52]She wrote in Vogue, "There comes a time in life [00:23.24]when we have to decide to move in a different direction. [00:27.72]That time is always hard when you love something so much. [00:32.36]My goodness do I enjoy tennis. But now, the countdown has begun." [00:38.44]Williams noted on Instagram, "I have to focus on being a mom..." [00:44.36]Williams, who turns 41 next month, [00:47.68]suggested that the upcoming U.S. Open championship [00:52.04]could be her last tournament. [00:54.76]Williams has won 23 Grand Slam titles in her long career. [01:00.64]She won her first Grand Slam 23 years ago, at the 1999 U.S. Open. [01:08.48]Williams won her 23rd Grand Slam at the 2017 Australian Open. [01:16.16]No one knew it at the time, but Williams was two months pregnant. [01:21.68]She gave birth to her daughter Olympia later that year on September 1. [01:28.12]Williams wrote in Vogue that she wants to grow her family [01:32.44]and have a second child. [01:34.76]The tennis champion wrote, "I never wanted [01:38.08]to have to choose between tennis and a family. [01:41.92]I don't think it's fair. If I were a guy I wouldn't be writing this [01:47.44]because I'd be out there playing and winning [01:50.68]while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family." [01:56.60]That feeling is something that many women can relate to. [02:01.12]Sherie Randolph is a history professor at Georgia Tech University. [02:06.80]She is working on a book about African American mothers. [02:10.88]She said, "Society makes women think [02:14.52]that they can have everything all at once [02:17.36]— be the best hands-on-mom and at the top of the field." [02:22.96]Jo McKinney, who is 57, is a New York advertising executive. [02:28.56]She said, "I got goosebumps as I read Serena's piece [02:33.48]because she said what many of us feel and are afraid to voice: [02:38.40]It's not fair, and something's got to give." [02:42.48]The choices are even more difficult [02:44.72]for women in professional sports, said Lisa Banks. [02:48.84]She is an employment lawyer who works on gender and sports. [02:53.64]"You can have it all, but can you have it at the same time and the same level, [02:59.32]if you're going through pregnancies? [03:01.96]No, you miss some time, you miss training," she said. [03:06.36]Other female sports stars, [03:08.92]like American runners Allyson Felix and Alysia Montano, [03:13.72]have lost sponsorship money after getting pregnant. [03:17.68]Distance runner Kara Goucher also fought battles over pregnancy pay. [03:23.56]She said, "You see the dad at the Super Bowl holding his kids. [03:28.88]The reason he's able to do that ... is because someone else [03:32.76]is there taking care of their children. That's not how it is for mothers." [03:38.40]Tennis player Chris Evert won 18 Grand Slam championships in her career. [03:44.88]She retired at age 34 and started a family two years later. [03:50.44]"The motherhood/tennis career subject is not one I experienced," [03:56.60]she said in an email to the Associated Press. [04:00.88]She noted that Williams is [04:03.04]a "leader on many important cultural, social and gender issues." [04:08.36]Dearica Hamby is a basketball player [04:12.40]with the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). [04:16.12]Like Williams, Hamby has a 5-year-old daughter. [04:20.24]She said Williams has been "an example for a lot of us, [04:25.00]especially mothers being able to compete at such a high level." [04:29.80]Hamby said she has talked a lot with other players about choosing between [04:35.08]motherhood and professional sports. [04:37.88]She said, "It's the reality of the world we live in." [04:42.12]I'm Ashley Thompson. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM