Venus Williams

REPORTING FROM WORCESTER, MASS. (Feb. 10, 2012) – This isn’t the way the Great American Tennis Story is supposed to go. Venus Williams’ story isn’t over yet, but it looks like it’s going to have the wrong ending. You’d like for it to end with a bang, with some kind of glory. She has meant a lot to a lot of people.

“I don’t know if I will ever feel normal again,” she told me this week at the US Fed Cup victory in Worcester, Mass.

Ever?

“I don’t know if I will.”

Roughly half a year since she last played on tour, since she finally was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome and began treatments, Williams is about to try to come back.

She hopes to get into this summer’s London Olympics, but she will have to grind her way through the most physically demanding part of the season even though she doesn’t know how she will feel tomorrow.

Maybe the glory is in the way she’s fighting the disease that has stolen so much of her energy. She has changed to a vegan diet, and she says the medicines slowly are making her feel better.

But what does “normal” mean for Williams?

Please read the rest of my column in FoxSports.com here