英国新闻听力 威廉姆斯荣获年度体育人物（在线收听）

She is a beautiful, graceful, tennis champion, a world class athlete, and role model for millions of women around the world. And yesterday in America, tennis ace, Serena Williams, was pronounced Sportsperson of the year by the Sports magazine, Sports Illustrated. It is the first time an African American woman has been awarded this honour and only the third time that it has gone to a woman in the magazine’s history. But, being a powerful, black sportswoman in tennis, a sport often viewed as a bastion of white advantage, comes with constant challenges to her gender and ethnicity.

Not long after the announcement of the award was made, social media was abuzz with a number of complaints from a section of the magazines readers. These disgruntled sports fans pointed to an online poll, by Sports Illustrated fans, which gave a landslide victory, not to Serena Williams, but to the racehorse, ‘American Pharaoh’.

I think that the Sports Illustrated fans who voted for American Pharaoh missed an important point. The purpose of the award is to acknowledge the accomplishments of a human being; the award has never gone to an animal. But I have to wonder, why is it that an animal, however graceful and powerful, gets recognized above the humanity of an accomplished black woman?

It is a truism to say that some bodies count more than other bodies, but I'd like to flesh out this statement, pun intended.

The message of the advent, the coming of Christ into the world, is that we can identify God precisely by coming into contact with a human body. The church, for centuries, particularly the Gnostics, who denied God could be so closely aligned with physicality -- that if Jesus were God he couldn't be born as a baby, has struggled with this core element of the gospel.

Ranking American Pharaoh above Serena Williams suggests that we in the Western world, even here in Britain, still struggle with bodies--especially the bodies of women, and particularly the bodies of black women.

Throughout her career, the very body of Serena Williams, rather than her sportsmanship, has been attacked: too muscular, too physical, too aggressive--too unlike other bodies traditionally associated with greatness in tennis. Have our own commentators given her the credit she deserves?

I believe the online discussion of Serena’s body is an illustration of a larger question. A question about personhood; recognizing and respecting people for who they are, and what they have done. And how we should live out the meaning of Advent, the idea that God lives in all flesh, and that all flesh is good.

她是一位漂亮优雅的网球冠军，世界级运动员，是全世界数百万女性的楷模。昨天，在美国，网球顶尖高手塞雷娜·威廉姆斯被《体育画报》杂志评为年度体育人物。这是首次由非洲裔美国女性获此殊荣，也是该杂志历史上第三次由女性获得该奖项。但是，作为网球界一位有影响力的黑人女运动员——网球常被视为白人比较有优势的领域——她在性别和种族方面都不断面临挑战。

该奖宣布以后，社交媒体上充斥着部分杂志读者的抱怨。这些存在不满情绪的体育迷指出，《体育画报》粉丝们进行的网络民意测验显示，赢得该奖项的不是塞雷娜·威廉姆斯，而是以压倒性优势获胜的赛马“美国法老”。

我认为，投票给“美国法老”的《体育画报》粉丝们错过了重要的一点。该奖项的目的是认可人类的成就；该奖项从未颁发给动物。但是我不得不思考，为何是这样一个动物，无论它如何优雅而有影响力，比有成就的黑人女性更获得人们的认可？

如果说有些人比其他人重要，那是陈词滥调。但是我要充实这个说法，这个说法有双关的意思。

基督降临人世传达的信息是，我们可以通过与人体接触来精确地辨认上帝。几个世纪来，基督教堂，尤其是诺斯替派一直奋力抵抗福音书的核心因素。他们否认上帝应该与肉体一致，认为如果耶稣是上帝，那么他不应该以婴儿的形体降生。

“美国法老”凌驾于塞雷娜·威廉姆斯之上表明，在西方世界，甚至在英国，仍然不认可身体，尤其是女性的身体，特别是黑人女性的身体。

在塞雷娜·威廉姆斯的职业生涯中，受到攻击的一直是她的身体，而不是她的体育精神：肌肉太发达，太强健，太具攻击性，与网球界传统认可的其他身体大有不同。我们自己的解说员给了她应得的赞誉吗？

我认为，对塞雷娜身体的讨论彰显了一个更大的问题。关于人格的问题，认可和尊重别人的人格和他们的成就。我们的生活应该体现基督降临人世的意义。上帝是以血肉之躯存在的，所有的血肉之躯都是好的。