Wimbledon glory for Taylor Townsend after battling USTA weight discrimination

Taylor Townsend spoke about the discrimination she faced from the USTA due to her weight after winning her first Grand Slam title in doubles at Wimbledon 2024. The American teamed up with the experienced Katerina Siniakova and defeated the second seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe in the final.

The 28-year-old American had fallen in her previous two finals: at the 2022 US Open with Caty McNally and at the 2023 French Open with Leylah Fernandez. The third time was the charm for Townsend, who will rise to World No. 7 in the doubles ranking.

From junior star to Wimbledon doubles champion

Townsend was one of the most prominent junior players of recent times. From an early age, she was compared to the Williams sisters, reached World No. 1 junior, and won the 2012 Australian Open in singles and doubles, becoming the first American to win titles in singles and doubles of a junior Grand Slam since Lindsay Davenport at the 1992 US Open.

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Later, she won the Wimbledon girls' doubles with Eugenie Bouchard and was one of the favorites to go for the local title at the 2012 US Open. The controversy arose when the USTA decided it would not pay for Townsend’s travel expenses to participate in the US Open, implying that the player was overweight and needed to improve her physical condition.

The controversial decision was made at that time by Patrick McEnroe, Manager of Player Development at the USTA. The player, who was World No. 1 junior at the time, could not access financial aid, and her mother had to cover the expenses: "My body — it’s just a part of who I am. And if that makes you uncomfortable, then I don’t know what to say. This might not be the article for you," Taylor Townsend said in a Players Tribune column in 2021.

Taylor Townsend joined Leylah Fernandez at 2023 French Open and reached the final. They lost against Su-Wei Hsieh and Wang Xinyu.

"I’m not thin, and I’ve never been thin — that’s just the truth about it, straight up. Like, for real, I used to be out there on the court with my lil rolls hanging out in my tight tank tops. Why?? Because why not?? I liked the way I looked. I liked the way I felt, and I wasn’t ashamed," she added.

"This wasn’t the first time my fitness had come up. It was something I’d been working on with my coaches….. and I’ll be the first to admit that conditioning wasn’t an area of strength for me that summer. But I was still getting results where it mattered most, you know what I mean??" Taylor Townsend said.

"It was frustrating!! Like, here I was, flying back to Florida to start my fitness 'hiatus' — while all the other juniors I knew (girls I was ranked higher than) were on their way to New York to start getting ready for the Open," she added.

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Despite not having USTA funding, Townsend traveled anyway, and her family paid out of pocket. The player reached the quarterfinals of the junior tournament and lost to Estonian Anett Kontaveit.

"Why is my ranking saying I’m the best in the world….. and my doctor is saying I’m okay to play….. and meanwhile the USTA is saying I need to see a nutritionist….. and lose some weight???" Taylor Townsend said in the Players Tribune column. "It made no sense. It was confusing as hell. And it hurt — it hurt really bad," she added.

"My mom was the one who shielded me from all that. She was always like, 'You’re a child — you should stay in a child’s place. Let me deal with the grown-up stuff.' So for the most part, me and Symone, we just went out and played. But we still knew what was going on."

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"We’d overhear them talking about it, see the looks on their faces, stuff like that. And it was tough. Seeing how you’re making things hard on your family? That’s tough at any age," Taylor Townsend said.

"And the thing about those parents who would say sh*t about me — it was like they felt their kids were the ones getting robbed of an opportunity. Like they weren’t getting the 'country club tennis experience' they had signed up for. Tennis was supposed to be 'their' sport. And yet here was their kid, getting beat by a big Black girl," Townsend said.

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