Serena Williams Wins Gold And Performs The Most Meaningful Crip Walk Ever

The younger Williams sister made quick work out of Maria Sharapova and then celebrated her first singles gold medal with a crip walk that likely has a surprisingly deep and personal meaning.

Serena’s dominance of the gold medal match cannot be overstated. She lost one game. Her serve was never broken. She won in only 63 minutes! She looked like Jeff Daniels in The Squid And The Whale to Maria Sharapova’s Laura Linney — and Maria Sharapova is one of the best tennis players in the world! She was blown off the court.

It’s at moments like these that we’re reminded just how great Serena Williams is. Like Tiger Woods before he became a late night tv punchline, it’s easy to take the younger Williams for granted. After all, she won her first grand slam title 13 years ago, when she was just 17. In her already storied career she had won every major prize her sport offered but one: the women’s singles Olympic gold medal. Today, at the cost of Maria Sharapova’s dignity, she got that too. But the most powerful moment came in Serena’s celebration…

The Steps Of A Serena Celebration:

5. Step One: The Serena Scream

6. Step Two: Cross-Court Jumps

7. Step Three: Sideline Jumps

8. Step Four: The Most Powerful Crip Walk EVER

Serena’s older half-sister Yetunde Price was shot and killed by a member of the Mac Mafia Crips in 2003. At the time Price still lived in Compton and had been driving with her boyfriend near a suspected Crips drug house when a gang member named Robert Maxfield opened fire with an AK-47 on the car. Price was killed.

It would be surprise me if Serena’s dance today, besides being delightfully charming, wasn’t meant as a something of a middle finger to the gang that took her sister.

9. Step Five: The Cha Cha Cool Down

10. Serena Williams: Women’s Singles Gold Medalist

Image by Elsa / Getty Images

11. Watch Gold Medal Point And Serena’s Celebration:

Video available at: http://buzzfeed-video1.s3.amazonaws.com/video/2012/08/04/GoogleChromeScreenSnapz055-624x352.mp4.