Billie Jean King, one of the most important players in the history of women’s tennisgiving its name to the old Federation Cup, considered the world team championship, is a reference to the fight for women’s rights and social equality in and outside of sport.
At 79 years old, the North American went on to win twelve Grand Slam singles titles his fight for equality continues. Keeping the fight for justice alive. In Seville, he shines a light on the competition taking place throughout the week while permanently emphasizing the message he has spread throughout his career and life.
Between matches, the legendary Billie Jean King chatted with a small group of media outlets, including Agencia EFE.
– Your legacy is consolidated in tennis. What other projects do you have in mind for women’s sports?
“Well, I don’t think it’s finished. I hope it’s not. But it’s true that we just started a professional women’s ice hockey league (the PWHPA). We announced it a month ago. Kendall Coyne, the fastest skater in the world, with us. He came and asked us for help. They needed a league where the best would play. And we got it, because we asked people like Mark Walter if he wanted to invest and they said yes. It was it’s been exciting. We recently held the draft, more than 150 people were accepted… Everyone can play in this league. Now we have three teams in the United States and three in Canada, but it’s open to everyone. There are you ice hockey in Spain?”
– There is a league with several teams, especially from the north.
“If there are good enough players, they can play in this league. I told them that it wouldn’t help much if they don’t work on diversity. When you see Serena and Venus (Williams), Coco Gauff now… it’s because in 1973 we started to worry about this issue, to address it. This is how the presence of people of color, Latinos… I know Andrés Gimeno very well. He won Roland Garros in 1972. He was not longer than us, but he was an amazing person. Everyone “The world said that he would not be able to win Roland Garros and he did it. I like that.”
-What would you think of a merger of the ATP and the WTA?
“I always wanted them to be together. From day one. I tried in 1968 and they said ‘no’. I kept trying and they kept saying no. They created the ATP in 1972 and the WTA appeared in 1973, four day after Wimbledon. “It’s funny. But the ideal is that we are together. We are better together.”
– You are a pioneer in the fight for rights and now there are many great female players fighting for different social causes such as the ‘Black Lives Matters’ movement, equal pay, mental health… You feel is it proud?
“I suppose so, it’s something to be proud of. But I don’t think about that, but about more things we can do and what we can improve on. When I think about the past it’s about what I learned before, and if what. use that can be for me.” now looking to the future. In the 80s there was talk about mental health, but we kept it private. Naomi Osaka told it and now we can talk about it in public. Better this way but we were already worried. We just privatize it. Abusive coaches, abusive families with their children are always a problem, and we try to help anyone who needs it in the WTA, in the USTA. But the player is the first to change. Otherwise, nothing can be done”.
-What do you think has been the level of importance and influence of sport in the women’s movement?
“It’s very important. You only have to look at Spain, who became world football champions. I was personally in Sydney and took a picture with the team and congratulated them. It’s incredible. It’s a big change. All the Spain is in love now. This is the beginning of something that will be bigger and better. We used to be 4% of the media coverage, then 5% and now we are up to 50%. The media is where the money is. “The The the reason why male athletes earn a lot is because the media talks about them. And we don’t make as much money because they don’t, they don’t focus as much on us.”
“But in the last year and a half I think we’ve reached a point where billionaires, businessmen, are investing in women’s sports. They’re not limited to giving money as non-refundable funds but they’re investing. They think we are a good business. When you see the attention that the champion soccer players receive in Spain, that makes more money selling media rights.”
“For the first time, FIFA raised money from women. I probably won’t see it, I’m gone, but this is the first step so that women can earn the same. We need people to believe in the us. I want families to think about their sons and daughters, and give them the best life they can have. If you ignore girls, it’s not good. The world is sick. I grew up with a brother who played baseball, he made it into Major League Baseball – he was a pitcher for the Giants, Astros and Blu Jays in the Major Leagues -. That was a serious thing in the United States. People told me ‘this is your brother, that is your brother’. She was fantastic. She always told me “She was much stronger than him, because she was a woman. She had two daughters. She didn’t care if they were a boy or a girl. She has never treated them worse than if they were. are men.”
“I hope that women’s tennis can be an example of that and I want the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup together. I’ve always wanted that. Women and men on the same team, on equal footing, together. I will make the world a better place.”
– Still in the present day, in 2023 there is talk of the ‘battle of the sexes’. How long do you think this situation will last? When do we talk about cooperation between the sexes?
“I think we still do a lot of work on this issue in business meetings. The challenge I see is that qualified women often have to report to a male superior. Where women lose out is in the race for in top positions. That’s where everything starts and ends. If you have a group of 50 men and women, the best positions go to 50 men. We need to change that. 94% of women in positions of responsibility are identified as athletes Sports. It teaches women to trust themselves and be resilient. It teaches men too, but they already have those things on their own. It teaches women to adapt better, that you have to finish the game. Champions adjust to what is being done them. There are. I’m not talking about tennis champions, but life champions. And it’s true. You spend days adapting. Men and women in power have to think about these things and strive for changes. All this It’s very slow, but possible .”
– 50 years have passed since he fought Bobby Riggs – number 1 male champion in the world in 1941, 1946 and 1947 who challenged him to a match -, the ‘Battle of the Sexes’. How does this contribute to equality of awards between men and women?
“I don’t know. What I do know is that 90 million people followed it. Some are tennis people, but many are not familiar with this sport. Professional tennis is just beginning. A lot has been written about that. It’s a question of change Because of this, women gained a lot of confidence. And men began to think about their wives, their daughters… that they have the same opportunities and that they earn the same money as their sons. They started to understand how women were treated .the women compared to the men, so it made a big difference.
“90 million watched it around the world. The Super Bowl, which was huge in the United States, had 53 million viewers. It was probably the time when tennis got the most attention. President Obama was 12 years old then, and once he had He said it helped to raise his daughters, to think: ‘I want to do everything possible for them.’ At that time, women in the United States could not get a credit card for themselves. Women They represented 5% of university students, due to a quota system that had just been abolished last year. Since then it has started them to have a sports scholarship. There used to be none. I had two jobs and Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith … They were given a full scholarship. That game was about that. It opened a lot of doors.”
-Do you think you would have played that match if Margaret Court hadn’t lost then?
“No. I told my ex-husband, Larry King, that I thought Margaret would destroy Bobby. But if she lost, she had to play. Because this was the third year of professional women’s tennis. It was It The important we won. If he had won we wouldn’t have played, so that really helped me.”
-If you look back, are you happy with what you achieved?
“I don’t look back, I look to the future. It’s not the way I think. I think about what we can improve. I think I’m very lucky. My work off the court is more important than winning. against tennis, but by winning them I achieved that people would listen to me and thus move things forward. When I was playing for a year, I had my epiphany. I was daydreaming. I was at the Los Angeles Tennis Club and there were only white people. I asked myself: ‘where is the rest of the world?'”.
“I don’t know the word ‘platform’, but this is what I think about, what I dream about. I thought that if I could be number one, something that otherwise I’m not interested in, people would listen to me, I’m going to get diversity. I So I’m in a better position than people of color, or people with disabilities, but I’m still a woman, so it’s a difficult task. That day, I promised myself that I will fight for equality for the rest of my life. “And that is what I continue to do, through tennis, business and other means. I’m not just talking about it and collecting the check, I’m also putting my money into sports.”
Source: La Verdad
I’m Robert Maynard, and I am a passionate journalist with experience in sports writing. For the last few years, I have been writing for Today Times Live. My main focus has been on sports-related stories and features. With my strong background in journalism and extensive knowledge of the industry, I am able to provide readers with well-crafted pieces that are both informative and engaging.
