Tennis legend Billie Jean King delivers opening remarks ahead of the inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League draft in Toronto, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)
Billie Jean King is still globetrotting in support of more investment and equity in women’s sports.
She attended the Women’s World Cup in Australia, kicked off the player draft for the new women’s professional hockey league in Toronto and is opening an office in London for a tennis business venture involving the international Billie Jean King Cup.
That’s all in the last three months for King, who turns 80 in November.
“We’re kind of at a tipping point,” King said. “People are actually looking at women’s sports like a great investment.”
She’s part of ownership groups involved with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the NWSL’s Angel City FC and the PWHL hockey league that starts in January.
Her busy schedule is reminiscent of the summer of 1973, when a 29-year-old King established the WTA, won the Wimbledon triple crown in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, achieved equal pay at the U.S. Open and beat self-proclaimed chauvinist Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes” match.
On Thursday, King and about 60 athletes will celebrate the 50th anniversary of equal prize money at 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 lady Michelle Obama attended the U.S. Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium to mark the pay equity milestone.
“Let us remember all of this is bigger than a champion’s paycheck,” Michelle Obama said during the ceremony on opening night. “This is about how women are seen and valued in this world.”
King recently launched the production company “Pressure is a Privilege,” a phrase associated with the 39-time Grand Slam winner. She’s also an executive producer and host of “Groundbreakers,” a…
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