The first thing you may have noticed about 2026 Met Gala co-chair Venus Williams was the neck plate draped across her chest. It was a custom piece made to mirror the Wimbledon Ladies' Singles trophy she's already won… five times. But here’s what you might have missed: her delicate Swarovski crystal earrings, emblazoned with “6%”.
That number is the whole point. To date, only 6% of global sports science research focuses exclusively on women. Williams’s role as Gatorade’s first-ever Body of Science ambassador aims to change that. The multi-year global program, led by the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, will study women's needs across life stages and critical moments — from menstrual cycles to pregnancy to perimenopause — to close the research funding gap.
Below, Williams shares how she stays motivated, what she’s learned about listening to her body, and why her partnership with Gatorade feels so personal.
On what drew her to her partnership with Gatorade
“I had absolutely no idea that only 6% of research was dedicated to women. If I'm a prime athlete, and that's literally what I do for a living and I don't know it, [then] the rest of the world doesn't know it. … This opportunity gives me a platform to do something good, but also I've been educated myself. [The] sports [industry]? It's huge. It's worldwide. It's big business. And guess what? Girls play sports, women play sports.”
On what younger players get right about performance that she had to learn the hard way
“I feel like I straddle both worlds. The research and science changes quickly. I see how the players are training differently. I see the players doing all the same exercises and the same recoveries and [then] within a matter of months, suddenly everybody's doing something different. So I love that there's so much investment in that. But what I'd love more of [is if] that investment had more women involved.”
On what winning at this stage in her career looks like, and how she stays disciplined on days when she doesn’t feel motivated
“Your character is built on the days when we don't feel our best. It's all about building habits. You build the right habits, and you build an expectation for yourself. At the same time, it's about listening to your body. I used to train like six days a week, and finally, in my late 30s, I started exploring [training] five days a week. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I feel so much stronger when I take a little time off.’”
On what she’d tell someone who feels off their game right now
”Most days are not going to be perfect. Of course, we can aim for perfection, but there's a part of you that has to realize that it's not always going to feel great. It's not always going to feel perfect. [Try to take] out the feeling and [say], ‘I enjoy this challenge. I enjoy this process.’ Once you start to reframe it, then you kind of get out of this feeling of ‘[I] gotta feel good. I've gotta be perfect. I gotta feel great.’”
Rapidfire
A handful of fast getting-to-know-you questions, with no overthinking required.
Pre-game ritual: Eat, warm up, stretch. I just got married, so now my husband and I say a prayer before we go play. That's like the new game ritual that we don't skip. I love that.
Weirdest group chat: It's no longer around, but it was called "Dating Adventures."
Guilty pleasure: Oh, my God. I love candy.
Show: I started watching Friends again. I watch the same things over and over. They're like my friends. I don't want them to leave.
Song: [Once, before an exhibition game,] I picked a song by Drowning Pool, called “Bodies.” I was kind of doing it as a joke, and as they played the song and I walked on, the crowd was like, what? So I don't think I'll ever do that again.