Venus Williams dominated tennis with 49 singles victories and seven Grand Slam titles as recently as 2017. She is still the most decorated female tennis player to compete in the Olympic Games.
What most people don’t realize is that Williams has been fighting a battle with her own body for the past decade.
She recently spoke with Prevention.com about her battle with Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease that affects approximately 4 million people in the United States.
Venus Williams health: What disease does Venus Williams have?
Williams first noticed symptoms like fatigue and shortness of breath in 2004.
“No matter how hard I worked, I was always exhausted, out of breath, and out of shape.”
“It was extremely frustrating,” Williams says to Prevention.com.
“My symptoms worsened to the point where I couldn’t play professional tennis any longer.”
Williams was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease distinguished by two of its most common symptoms: dry eye and dry mouth.
“Unfortunately,” she says, “that’s typical of people with autoimmune disease.”
“They’ve been misdiagnosed or are too ill to function.”
Professional tennis was literally taken away from me before I received the proper diagnosis.”
