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Who really said it

A champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall

Spoken by Serena Williams b. 1981 · 23-time Grand Slam singles champion
Verified In copyright

She really said it. The line you usually see is the trimmed form of a fuller remark — “I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall. I have fallen several times…” — documented in a 2012 interview with The National ↗, spoken during her comeback from a life-threatening 2011 illness. The popular version simply drops her opening “I really think.”

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

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Verified quote & credit

“A champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall” Serena Williams, quoted in The National, 2012

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Serena Williams). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

Evoking the world of Serena Williams — American tennis champion & 23-time Grand Slam singles winner. Theme: "A champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "A champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The documented source

Speaker
Serena Williams
Documented in
Interview with The National, Sept 2012
Context
Her comeback from a 2011 pulmonary embolism
Full wording
“I really think a champion is defined not by their wins…”

I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall. I have fallen several times. Each time I just get up and dust myself off and I pray, and I’m able to do better or I’m able to get back to the level that I want to be on.

The popular one-liner is the opening clause of this fuller statement, with her “I really think” removed.

The National — “The fall and rise of maturing Serena Williams”

How we traced it

  • The fuller quotation is reported in a 2012 interview with The National ↗, tied to her return after her 2011 health scare.
  • Essence ↗ reproduces the passage word-for-word and credits that same interview with The National.
  • The circulated one-liner appears across quote databases such as Goodreads ↗, usually without the “I really think” opener or the source.
  • It is not in the sourced section of Wikiquote ↗, so news reporting remains the best available citation.
In copyright

These are Serena Williams’s own spoken words, first reported in 2012 — a modern, identifiable utterance, so it is treated as in copyright to her rather than public domain.

Fact-check

The wording, and how it travels

This one is genuinely hers — the issue is not who said it but how completely it’s quoted. The internet has sanded a fuller sentence down to a tidy motto.

Serena Williams trimmed

“A champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall” drops her opening “I really think” and the follow-on — “I have fallen several times” — that gave the line its personal weight, per The National ↗.

Serena Williams reworded

Some sites render it as “A champion is not defined by their wins but how they recover when they fall,” a light paraphrase that reorders her words — the meaning survives, the exact phrasing does not.

Bottom line: Serena Williams really said this. The clean motto is a faithful trim of her fuller 2012 remark to The National ↗, not a fabrication.

Context

Why she said it

Williams made the remark during her comeback from a 2011 pulmonary embolism — a blood clot in the lungs that can be fatal — which had sidelined her for nearly a year. Read against that, “how they can recover when they fall” is not a slogan but a description of what she had just lived through.

That autobiographical anchor is exactly what the trimmed motto loses. The full sentence continues, “I have fallen several times,” making clear she was speaking about herself, not issuing a general maxim.

A champion is defined… by how they can recover when they fall.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Resilience Failure Success

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

The National — The fall and rise of maturing Serena Williamsthenationalnews.com

The 2012 interview that documents the fuller quotation in her own words.
Essence — Best Serena Williams motivation quotesessence.com

Reproduces the full passage verbatim and credits the interview with The National.
Goodreads — Serena Williams quotesgoodreads.com

Shows the circulated one-liner attributed to her, typically without a source.
Wikiquote — Serena Williamsen.wikiquote.org

For comparison — this line is not (yet) in Wikiquote's sourced section.

The author

About Serena Williams

Serena Williams

b. 1981 · American tennis champion & 23-time Grand Slam singles winner

Serena Williams (born 1981) is one of the greatest tennis players in history, holding 23 Grand Slam singles titles — the most in the Open Era. Her career included a near-fatal pulmonary embolism in 2011 and a celebrated return to dominance, the very context in which this remark about recovery was spoken.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Serena Williams, quoted in “The fall and rise of maturing Serena Williams,” The National, September 10, 2012.

MLA (9th ed.)

“The Fall and Rise of Maturing Serena Williams.” The National, 10 Sept. 2012.

APA (7th ed.)

The fall and rise of maturing Serena Williams. (2012, September 10). The National.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘A champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/a-champion-is-defined-not-by-their-wins-but-by-how-they-can

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