Billie Jean King: “Legend? I was never comfortable with that”

The word “legend” is often used too happily, but Billie Jean King He undoubtedly deserves that definition as the scale of his accomplishments on and off the slopes is of extraordinary height.

Pioneer and activist in multiple sports and social initiatives, the former American tennis player is an important figure, perhaps the main person responsible, for understanding the continuous evolution and the integrated present not only of tennis, but of women’s sports.

As a player he is world No. 1 and, between 1966 and 1975, he won 39 titles. grand slam between singles (12), doubles (16) and mixed (11) and seven titles of Fed Cupthe team competition that now bears his name and whose Finals will be held soon at Sevillefrom November 7 to 12.

This record is one of the most complete in history, but its protagonist himself admits that he is as proud or more proud of his social achievements in the pursuit of equality, the engine that has driven his life since his early consciousness to the differences in the world.

“I’m very proud of my career, but maybe what I’ve done off the track has been more important than what I’ve done here,” Billie Jean King admitted a few days ago in a telematic meeting with MD and other media before the Finals of the BJK Cup.

A flamenco lover

Sevilla awaits King in the Finals

Billie Jean King is looking forward to the BJK Cup finals in Seville to also enjoy her other passion, flamenco, one of the personal anecdotes she told during her press conference. “I’ve been to Spain before as the captain of the American team, in Madrid, in Valencia, and I think we always lose because of Conchita and Arantxa,” she recalled with a laugh. “It’s incredible to return to Spain, with a rich history in the Fed Cup. It will be a privilege to be in Seville for the first time. I love flamenco and I know that flamenco comes from there, so I can kong’ Wait to see flamenco again and meet people from Seville and the other countries that come to the city. A few years ago, when we played in Spain, after the games every night we would ride car and going to see flamenco, there was always something to see,” he commented to Billie Jean King.

“When I was a little girl and I was sitting in the tennis club, I was thinking about our sport and then I saw that everyone was playing in white and all the people were also white. And I asked myself : ‘Where is the break from people? “I dreamed of tennis as a global sport, but I saw that it had a problem,” explained King, who will turn 80 on November 22.

“When I became No. 1, I saw that I could help make the world a better place. That day, I promised myself that I would fight for equality for the rest of my life and since then I haven’t changed, ” recalls Billie Jean, who took advantage of the speaker’s fame to fight for a more just world. Married to Larry Kingwhom he divorced years later, once recognized his bisexuality as another sign of being ahead of his time.

Among other things, King was the advocate of equal awards in US Openthe germ for the rest of the Grand Slamsof the establishment of the WTA and of creation of the Women’s Sports Foundation. His victory in the match was famous and iconic ‘Battle of the Sexes’ against retired and bully Bobby Riggs (6-4, 6-3, 6-3), another boost in their fight for respect and equality.

Magazine ‘Life’ selected him as one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century in the United Statesthe only female athlete on a list that includes only three other athletes, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson (baseball) and Muhammad Ali (boxing).

“I’m blessed with everything we’ve been able to do in tennis and women’s sport since 1968, the investment and development, but I’m not comfortable with the word legend. I’m always busy thinking about what we want to do in the future for our sport, and that’s why the BJK Cup means so much to me, but to be honest, it’s not comfortable for me to be called a legend,” King admitted.

“We are thinking a lot about what to do to make the competition even better. We need to attract children and youth, with BJK and the Davis cup junior, we want to create a culture to not only think about yourself, but about your teams, your life and each other. We want to be leaders, our sport needs leaders to fight for equality and help others,” insisted the North American, very optimistic about the future of tennis.

“I think we are in a fantastic position to continue to grow. Tennis is the healthiest sport in the world and, from childhood, it can be a sport for life for health reasons. And, as a competitive sport, we are global. Looking to the future “We want to make the BJK Cup bigger and better every year,” said King.

“Maybe it’s the rivalry between Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert It’s the best in the sport, they’ve played together 80 times and I don’t think there’s anything like it. I love rivalries, but currently we have a lot of depth on the circuit, I don’t know which is better. This year there were four different Grand Slam champions, there could be different winners in each tournament, the world number 150 could be number 1 one day. We need to increase the number of girls playing so that more stars can emerge,” observed Billie Jean, pleased with the appearance of Coco Gauff as a new American figure.

“I have fought for equality and inclusion all my life. Now we have many great players USA and it is incredible that Coco won her first Grand Slam in US Open, it is very good for tennis. We seek diversity in sport, it is very important to be inclusive. Coco is very famous, her grandmother is a black woman who graduated from a white school and she has a strong family, I think that’s where she gets her great understanding of social issues. I love what she does on and off the court,” said Billie Jean.