Serena Williams did not win her 24th Grand Slam title Saturday, but her appearance in the Wimbledon final should be remembered as the most significant run of her career because 10 months ago, she almost died.

Following the September birth of her daughter, Alexis Olympia, via an emergency C-section, she had a series of surgeries as blood clots formed in her lungs. Couple her recovery from that with the challenges of being a first-time mother, and returning to the Wimbledon finals less than a year later was unimaginable.

“I almost didn’t make it to be honest,” Williams said Thursday — after her semifinal win against Julia Goerges — of her post-delivery complications. “I remember I couldn’t even walk to my mailbox, so it’s definitely not normal for me to be in a Wimbledon final. So I’m taking everything as it is and just enjoying every moment.”

Serena has always been exceptional and a role model, but in her comeback leading up to her finals loss to first-time Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber, the 36-year-old is more relatable than ever as she adds to her GOATness.

In addition to talking about her health issues, Serena has been proudly open about her challenges as a new and working mother — something women identify with regardless of profession or income.

She described her postpartum depression as pregnancy’s “fourth trimester,” encouraging women to talk about it more. After a lifetime of unimaginably vicious criticisms about her body, she shared her difficulties getting back in shape after giving birth. She refuted the misconception that breastfeeding helps all women lose weight and admitted she cried when she stopped with Olympia.

“What I’ve learned through the experience — everybody is different, every person is different, every physical body is different,” Williams said at a pre-Wimbledon press conference. “For my body, it didn’t work, no matter how much I worked out, no matter how much I did, it didn’t work for me.”

Hearing one of the greatest athletes in the world talk openly about common motherhood challenges this is encouraging, no doubt, to women who have been dealt what Serena called “a lie” that breastfeeding always helps with weight loss.

But she didn’t stop there. She did more than just tell women it’s OK to be who they are, especially if they don’t look perfect months after having a baby. She showed up to the French Open — her first Grand Slam tournament as a new mom a few weeks ago — wearing a fabulous cat suit with every inch of her body on display. Why?

“For all the moms out there who had a tough recovery from pregnancy,” she explained.

She’s tweeted about conquering blood clots but not strollers, training hard but still craving a beignet and missing her daughter even when she’s asleep in the next room. Just last weekend, she told the world she was heartbroken and cried after missing Olympia’s first steps because she was training.

Most women can’t relate to being a superstar athlete or attending a Royal Wedding. But they know what it’s like not to feel comfortable in their own bodies and the fear of facing unprecedented obstacles as new parents. They know what it’s like to miss milestone moments because of the challenges from being a working mother.

And in motherhood, Serena remains a powerful advocate who is changing the rules for women on and off the court.

She wants tennis to alter the way players are seeded after taking time off on maternity leave — she was not seeded in the French Open and was the No. 25-seed at Wimbledon — and the U.S. Open already has for its August-September tournament. She — along with sister Venus Williams — has pushed to close the gender pay gap for women in and outside of tennis, as it disproportionately affects women of color.

Serena was ranked No. 1 in the world following the 2017 Australian Open — her final tournament before she stopped playing and which she won while eight weeks pregnant with Olympia — and is now No. 181. She said, via Good Morning America:

“I think and I hope — and it should be under review — to change these rules. Maybe not in time for me, but for the next person,” Williams said. “Maybe she’s 25 and she wants to have a baby, but she doesn’t want her career to be over. She wants to continue to play. So I think it’s important to have those rules” reviewed.

Following her post-delivery complications, she’s also become an advocate for new mothers and their babies, especially since the risk of pregnancy-related deaths are up to four-times higher for black women than white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As Serena explained in a Vogue cover story in January, she knew something was wrong after Olympia’s birth when she started to lose her breath. The nurse she told initially dismissed her concerns before a CT scan revealed she knew her body better than the hospital staff.

“Doctors aren’t listening to us, just to be quite frank,” Williams told the BBC in March.

“I was in a really fortunate situation where I know my body well, and I am who I am, and I told the doctor: ‘I don’t feel right, something’s wrong.’ She immediately listened.

“She was great. I had a wonderful, wonderful doctor. Unfortunately a lot of African Americans and black people don’t have the same experience that I’ve had.”

In an op-ed for CNN based on her own experiences, she encourages people to donate to UNICEF to help prevent pregnancy-related and newborn fatalities globally.

Serena always seemed like a superhero. She’s proven many times over that she’s one of the greatest athletes ever. But by using her platform to change the narrative around women, childbirth and motherhood, she further transcended sports and became an important voice in the fight to change the world.