Taylor Townsend: ‘I was fat, and I was black, so they took away my dream’

Taylor Townsend gives a hearty laugh at the idea she might have been worried about social media trolls.

“No, because I knew I was fat,” she says matter-of-factly. “You’re not going to hurt my feelings, I’m very aware. But I’m doing something about it.”

Townsend, a 26-year-old American, is talking about her path back to tennis following the birth of her son Adyn 18 months ago.

Female athletes having children mid-career is becoming more common, especially in tennis, but not many are willing to show publicly their post-birth bodies.

Townsend did just that, posting videos on Instagram of her early workouts and making no attempt to hide how hard she found it. Considering everything she went through early in her career, it was extremely brave.

From humble beginnings on the south side of Chicago, Townsend had developed into the best junior in the world in 2012, winning the Australian Open girls’ title, when she was denied a US Open wild card and asked to sit out the junior tournament because of her body shape.

In a candid piece for The Players’ Tribune last year, Townsend wrote: “They didn’t just alienate me for not fitting the ‘mould’ of what a tennis player should look like – they punished me. They took away something I’d earned. I was fat, and I was black, so they took away my dream. Or at least they tried.”

Townsend, a talented left-hander with a crowd-pleasing game, played in the US Open juniors anyway, winning the doubles title, but the experience had a profound effect on her.

Ten years on, the journey back to fitness from childbirth hit hard, with Townsend saying: “It was very difficult. For the longest time I was like, ‘Oh I’ve just got to lose 20 pounds’, and I struggled with that.

“But then after having him and I had 80 to lose, I was like, ‘Holy crap. I’ve never had to do this before’. It was a lot of firsts for me. I was just wanted people to know that, even though we are out here on these courts and these stadiums, hitting a fuzzy yellow ball, I struggle.

“I wanted to connect with everyone on that because it’s something that’s incredibly real.”

Gratifyingly, Townsend found the reaction on social media positive.

“I didn’t know how long it was going to take, I didn’t know what the path was going to look like, I didn’t know if everything was going to go according to plan,” she said.

“But I really didn’t get that (abuse). I think it was inspiring for people because not a lot of people show when they’re down and out in the struggle. It was more, ‘We see you’, and that meant more to me.

Reference: Tennis365 -