Photo:Stephen Lovekin / Shutterstock
Stephen Lovekin / Shutterstock
Billie Jean Kingis celebrating 50 years of equal pay for dominant play.
“I always look forward, but sometimes it is good to look back and know what that day felt like,” King tells Naugle when asked what the Battle of the Sexes anniversary means to her. “Until we saw some of the match [on ESPN]… you forget how they talked about us women and themselves as well.”
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While King’s successes are very much her own, she credits her parents for giving her and her brother Randy the chance to achieve on their own. “They never asked us if we won. I think that’s a lot of the reason we like pressure because they didn’t put pressure on us. So there was space to breathe,” the tennis champion says. “My dad would say, ‘I’ve only got one question, did you try your best?… that’s good enough,’ and when I won, I’d get really excited and my mom would say, ‘You still have to dry the dishes.’ ”
Looking back on all she has accomplished in the past 50 years and prior, the Battle of the Sexes champion says she always knew her goal. “I wanted to change the hearts and minds of people.”
“All genders deserve to have the best that life has to offer… One of the goals of my generation, all of us, the oldies, is that the torch will be passed every generation. Our generation, my generation, it was really about the future. It wasn’t about us. We knew we weren’t going to make the big bucks.… We dreamed about theCoco Gauffsof the world.”
When asked what her advice is for these future generations, King responds, “Put the time and effort in. Promote and give. You’ve got to give to get.” Elaborating, she adds, “I think the more you give, the more you get. I mean, my life has been sensational from that point of view. But it’s like, if you really care about your sport, if you care about the future generations, then show it… Make time for everybody. You just don’t know how another person’s going to touch your life or how you will touch their life.”
Despite being retired from tennis, King’s work is hardly finished. Responding to the question of what is next for her, the former no. 1 tennis player in the world responded, “Tomorrow I have work.” She adds, “To me, it’s not work. It’s experiences… I take one moment at a time."
source: people.com
