Billie Jean King nonetheless globetrotting in assist of funding, fairness in ladies’s sports

NEW YORK — Billie Jean King remains to be globetrotting in assist of extra funding and fairness in ladies’s sports.

She attended the Women’s World Cup in Australia, kicked off the participant draft for the brand new ladies’s skilled hockey league in Toronto and is opening an workplace in London for a tennis enterprise enterprise involving the worldwide Billie Jean King Cup.

That’s all within the final three months for King, who turns 80 in November.

“We’re kind of at a tipping point,” King mentioned. “People are actually looking at women’s sports like a great investment.”

She’s a part of possession teams concerned with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the NWSL’s Angel City FC and the PWHL hockey league that begins in January.

Her busy schedule is harking back to the summer season of 1973, when a 29-year-old King established the WTA, gained the Wimbledon triple crown in singles, doubles and blended doubles, achieved equal pay on the U.S. Open and beat self-proclaimed chauvinist Bobby Riggs within the “Battle of the Sexes” match.

On Thursday, King and about 60 athletes will have fun the fiftieth anniversary of equal prize cash on the U.S. Open and the King-Riggs match at her annual awards dinner for the Women’s Sports Foundation in New York.

In August, former President Barack Obama and first girl Michelle Obama attended the U.S. Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium to mark the pay fairness milestone.

“Let us remember all of this is bigger than a champion’s paycheck,” Michelle Obama mentioned throughout the ceremony on opening evening. “This is about how women are seen and valued in this world.”

King not too long ago launched the manufacturing firm “Pressure is a Privilege,” a phrase related to the 39-time Grand Slam winner. She’s additionally an govt producer and host of “Groundbreakers,” a documentary about feminine athletes that airs on PBS on Nov. 21.

There’s an effort by members of Congress to award King the Congressional Gold Medal, one of many highest U.S. civilian honors given to people whose achievements have a long-lasting affect of their discipline.

Here’s a Q&A with King, which has been edited for brevity and readability.

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AP: It’s the fiftieth anniversary of so many accomplishments in 1973. Talk about that whirlwind.

KING: We began the WTA 4 days earlier than Wimbledon. I gained all three titles at Wimbledon, which for me was a giant deal. Then equal prize cash got here into being, it began in 1972 with us saying we’re not coming again (to the U.S. Open in 1973). Then King-Riggs. That’s all in 3 months. I can respect it since being away from it so lengthy. How the heck did we do this?

AP: You’ve mentioned the King-Riggs match was about social change, ladies standing up for themselves in all areas.

KING: It was actually about males, too. Because males began to shift a little bit. Obama was 12 years previous when he noticed the King-Riggs match. He mentioned it affected him lots. Guys are significantly better fascinated by their daughters than they was. All these items add up.

AP: You’re a part of possession teams for professional sports. How did you become involved in ladies’s professional hockey, which could have groups in Boston, New York, Minnesota, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal?

KING: The PWHL, it’s actually thrilling. It took 5 years. Plus, it took all these years of the opposite leagues, everybody attempting. (U.S. Olympic gold medalist) Kendall Coyne mentioned, ‘can you help us?’ We must have a league the place the perfect gamers will play. We went to Toronto and I did a gap speech about trailblazers. It was wonderful as a result of the households had been crying, the gamers had been crying, they mentioned ‘we’ve by no means been handled like this, it’s wonderful, we really feel like professionals for the primary time.’ There had been lots of little children there. Kids are going to have a tremendous alternative that the generations earlier than them by no means had. All three of their networks had it on. It’s a faith up there.

AP: How is funding in ladies’s sports altering?

KING: I’m asking CEOs and everybody now – ‘do you invest as much in women as you do in men?’ Then it often will get quiet. But I have to say it’s higher than it was. We’re actually fortunate to be with this funding group. The male allies we’ve had by the years have made such a distinction. They have the cash and the ability. But we’re getting there, getting increasingly ladies buyers, significantly in soccer. Women’s sports, we’ve all been combating for it.

AP: What would you wish to see sooner or later for girls’s sports?

KING: More. And be certain we get ladies early in life into sports. It’s actually in regards to the well being concern, greater than something. More jobs, extra all the pieces. Women of coloration and variety is absolutely vital.