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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Sport
Bryan Armen Graham

Serena Williams built her legacy on defiance. Why lend it to Ozempic culture?

Serena Williams Ro America Compton Elle
Serena Williams has partnered with a telehealth service called Ro to talk about weight, health and the role of GLP-1 treatment.
Serena Williams has partnered with a telehealth service called Ro to talk about weight, health and the role of GLP-1 treatment. Photograph: Handout/Ro

When Serena Williams was featured in a People magazine story on Thursday morning discussing her 31lb weight loss, the rollout had all the hallmarks of an advertisement draped in the thin veil of an all-caps EXCLUSIVE.

Vogue’s social channels amplified their own access, NBC’s Today show gave her a one-on-one segment and Elle published a carefully packaged interview in which Williams declared she wanted to break the stigma around weight-loss drugs, each of them in lockstep with what appeared to be a hard 9am press embargo. This vintage Jill Smoller quadrafecta was not a spontaneous confessional; it was a coordinated media blitz pegged to the US Open, the tentpole event of American tennis, which kicks off on Sunday in earnest.

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