Billie Jean King.Photo: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images
Billie Jean King willreceive the Muhammad Ali Legacy Awardat this year’sSports IllustratedAwards.
Olympic gold medalist Jessica Mendoza will present the award to King on Tuesday. Past recipients have included John Cena and Colin Kaepernick.
King, who holds 39 Grand Slam titles, opens up about the honor inSports Illustrated’s upcoming Dec. 16 issue and discusses her role in the birth of women’s professional tennis.
In 1970 King, along with eight other female athletes dubbed the “Original Nine,” signed $1 contracts with Gladys Heldman, publisher ofWorld Tennis Magazine, to compete independently of male tennis players, at the $7,500 Virginia Slims Invitational in Houston.
Says former U.S. Women’s National Soccer team captain Julie Foudy toSports Illustratedof the impact of King’s actions across the sports world, “In women’s sports for so long, you were told to shut up and just be grateful. And then we stopped shutting up, in large part because Billie’s like, ‘No, it’s on you. You make the change. You as players demand better.’ … She really was the catalyst.”
King’s modern contemporaries, like current tennis great Naomi Osaka, also praise her as worthy of the Muhammad Ali honor.
Osaka tells PEOPLE, “Billie is an icon and paved the way for women like me to have the careers we have. More importantly, she is a great person and friend and has always looked out for me in good times and bad.”
The Sportsperson of the Year will be revealed at the awards show and across the publication’s social media channels, a first forSports Illustrated. Past winners have included Tiger Woods,Serena Williams, and LeBron James.
The awards will stream live at 8 p.m. EST on Dec. 7 onSports Illustrated’s social channels, via LiveXLive and onSportsIllustratedAwards.com.
source: people.com
