It was early September 2009, and my family and I were fixated on the TV screen in our living room. The U.S. Open women’s tennis final was underway.

Kim Clijsters, who was unseeded at the time, just having returned to tennis after the birth of her first child, was about to secure her second Grand Slam title over ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki. Clijsters won a tight first set 7-5 and was up 5-3 in the second set, only needing one more game to secure the title.

When she hit the winning shot, Clijsters’ reaction was priceless. I hung on to every second of that broadcast, anxiously waiting to see her hoist the sparkling trophy above her head. I distinctly remember the cameras panning from her on-court celebration to her smiling baby in the audience, and I was amazed.

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Before that moment I didn’t perceive mothers as being athletes and vice versa — they were two unrelated identities in my mind. In that moment, all the societal standards and stereotypes I had unknowingly learned and picked up were shattered. The unseeded Clijsters had shocked the world with her comeback  on the biggest stage just 18 months after giving birth.

Needless to say, I went to bed that night with a newfound pride and passion for my sport. The following week, one of my teachers assigned us to choose a woman athlete that inspired us for a class report. I marched to the front of the room with my poster board on Clijsters. I couldn’t wait to share her incredible accomplishments with my peers and tell them how she had inspired me.

And yes, she went on to win another Grand Slam, taking home the Australian Open title just a few years later in 2011. At the time of these matches, I didn’t fully understand the level of difficulty Clijsters faced returning to tennis after giving birth, but she showed me — and the world — that women don’t have to choose between an athletic career and motherhood. 

Clijsters isn’t the only women’s tennis player to make waves in the tennis world after childbirth. Women such as Serena Williams and Margaret Court have also helped pave the way for countless women to believe in themselves and achieve their dreams of becoming professional athletes, while showing them that athletic success and having a family are not mutually exclusive.

In this day and age, women athletes can have it all. We should be grateful to the athletes who came before us and led by example to give us the same opportunities and privileges that male athletes have always had.   

Recently, I’ve found myself wondering why Clijsters’ U.S. Open win in particular spoke to me so much. In addition to playing tennis for 19 years, I’ve watched more tennis matches than one could count. They all seem to merge into one massive pool of forehands, backhands and serves.

As my own career as an athlete has progressed, I’ve realized the reason this match meant so much to me is because seeing Clijsters achieve her dreams validated that I could do it too. Women athletes like Clijsters emphasize the importance of equal coverage and representation, a topic more relevant today than ever.

Through this column, I hope to use my last year as a student-athlete at USC to help showcase the strides women in sports have made and are currently making, as well as focus on areas where there is room for growth to foster a more inclusive, uplifting competitive environment.

Tennis icon Billie Jean King once said, “Champions keep playing until they get it right.” This quote resonates beautifully with the women’s athletic empowerment movement because it’s quite literally what women have had to do in order to see changes in sports equity.

Women athletes have a lot to celebrate after significant progress over the last few years, such as the rapid growth of the WNBA. However, it’s no secret that there is still work to do, and I’m confident women athletes will not stop until we get it right.

Sloane Morra is a senior offering her insights on the latest issues surrounding women’s sports in her column, “Game ChangeHer,” which runs every other Friday.