Tennis star Serena Williams had a special moment at the 2025 Super Bowl, which she said she had been waiting for for 13 years.
After winning the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics, Williams celebrated with the “crip walk,” a dance move popular with California gangsters.
The New York Post reported that when Compton rapper and songwriter Kendrick Lamar was tapped to host the 2025 Super Bowl, his team reached out to Williams to pair two famous Compton names.
“When @kendricklamar and his team called me and said, ‘We’ve always wanted to do this, how do you feel about this? We loved your ‘crip walk’ at the Olympics when you won the gold medal,’” Williams said in a video on her Instagram account.
She went on to explain that she enthusiastically agreed to dance immediately
“Super Bowl? Are you serious? When can I ever dance at a Super Bowl? (Never) Yes, let’s do it!”, the tennis player wrote.
This special moment resulted in Williams’ “crip walk” moves on the Caesars Superdome court, while Kendrick Lamar sang his Grammy Award-winning song, “Not Like Us.”
With this, she connected not only to past events, but also to the connection to music and culture that had a great influence on her.
In her video, Williams talked about the preparations and emotions she had before this big moment.
“It was like crazy. Those were the best 10 seconds of my life. 10 seconds!”, she said.
The support of her husband, Alexis Ohanian, who commented on the criticism Williams received for this dance, showed that this was an important step for his wife, who has a huge impact outside the tennis court.
“Some of you have no idea how much Serena was criticized for this same dance she did at Wimbledon 13 years ago and this shows that this is bigger than music…”, he wrote on the X platform.
According to him, this moment was much more than a performance at the Super Bowl – “it was a manifestation of Williams’ legacy and a deep connection to her culture, music, and identity.”
