Taylor Townsend recently spoke about her experiences of dealing with discrimination related to her weight, both in her personal life and in her tennis career. She previously revealed that because of her weight, she lost funding from the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and was denied a wild card entry to the US Open in 2012.
Townsend turned pro in 2012 and has since been ranked World No. 1 in doubles on the WTA rankings. She won the doubles Grand Slam title at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships and the 2025 Australian Open, in partnership with Kateřina Siniaková. She also finished as the runner-up in doubles at the 2022 and 2025 US Open. In mixed doubles, the American secured runner-up finishes at the 2024 US Open and the 2025 French Open.
What Did Taylor Townsend Say About Dealing With Discrimination Because of Her Weight?
In a piece she wrote for The Players’ Tribune in 2021, Townsend shared the challenges she faced as a Black athlete dealing with scrutiny over her weight and the obstacles presented by the USTA. Recently, while speaking on “The Pivot” podcast, she elaborated on the difficulties she encountered due to her weight.
Townsend explained that the struggles and stigma she faced extended beyond tennis; the sport only acted as an “avenue” in highlighting the issues. She mentioned that she always felt the need to perform better than others to prove her worth, waiting for validation from others to acknowledge her achievements.
“It goes much deeper than tennis. Tennis was just the avenue and the stage in which it exposed what was inside, but it went way before that. I always felt like I had to prove, always had this chip on my shoulder, where until someone or something, whether it was a result and outcome validation from someone else, until that happened, I didn’t believe or didn’t see,” Townsend said.
The 29-year-old mentioned that it was “very hard” to hear people suggest that her professional advancement depended on losing weight or conforming to societal expectations.
“When I have people telling me that my funding and my career and the progression of my pro career is incumbent upon losing weight or fitting into a stigma and having to deal with that on a worldwide stage was very, very hard. At the time, I was living in Florida by myself, so I’m like throwing, trying to do what I can, while still playing and getting through it,” she continued.
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After the birth of her son, Adyn Aubrey, on Mar. 14, 2021, Townsend revealed that she made a conscious decision to let go of the “generational trauma” she had experienced, wanting to spare her son from similar issues.
“When I found out that I was pregnant with my son, one of the things I realized was how much like generational trauma that existed within me. So I was like, it’s COVID, f*ck it. I’m unpacking because I don’t want to pour anything else on this young black boy, this new soul. He’s already going to have to deal with so much; I don’t want to add to it with my sh*t that I’m not dealing with unconsciously,” Townsend said.
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The doubles World No. 1 acknowledged that letting go of this trauma allowed her to recognize that the critical voices in her head were not her own but those of her mother, grandmother, and others who had judged her based on her weight.
“I realized that a lot of the voices and a lot of the things and a lot of the feelings that I felt and what I would see when I was looking in the mirror, it wasn’t my voice. It was my mom’s voice, it was my grandma’s voice, “Your stomach’s too big to wear that swimsuit. You can’t wear two-piece swimsuits,”” she continued.
Townsend stated that throughout her tennis career, she carried the weight of discrimination, and when others implied that she would miss opportunities due to her weight, her feelings of trauma “solidified.”
“It’s even been an evolution of finding my fashion and being comfortable in clothes because I used clothes to hide. That’s what my mom did. I’m carrying this baggage that’s already there, and now I have these people telling me I’m fat, and I don’t fit the stigma, and I can’t do this, and I won’t get this, and opportunities are being taken away from me; they just locked it in, solidified it,” Townsend added.
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On the tennis side of things, Townsend most recently competed at the 2025 US Open. In the singles event, she reached the fourth round before losing to Barbora Krejčíková. In mixed doubles, she partnered with Ben Shelton, but they were eliminated by Danielle Collins and Christian Harrison in the quarterfinals.
In the women’s doubles event at the New York Major, Townsend teamed up with Siniaková, finishing as runner-up to the pair of Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe.
