Iconic tennis player Billie Jean King—who is also part of the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame—will become the first individual female athlete to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, NBC News reported.
Previous recipients of the medal include baseball legend Jackie Robinson, boxer Joe Louis, track-and-field star Jesse Owens and legendary golfer Arnold Palmer.
U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey announced that their bipartisan legislation had passed the House of Representatives and would be sent to President Joe Biden for his signature. The bill—introduced last September on the 50th anniversary of King’s 6–4, 6–3, 6–3 victory over Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes,” still the most-watched tennis match of all-time—had already passed unanimously through the U.S. Senate.
Sherrill said in a statement that King’s “lifetime of advocacy and hard work changed the landscape for women and girls on the court, in the classroom, and the workplace.”
On X (formerly Twitter), King stated, “Thank you. I am deeply humbled and honored.”
According to Bleacher Report, King was a 12-time Grand Slam singles champion during her career, which included winning Wimbledon six times. Additionally, King is a longtime activist in the area of gender equality
King received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. She was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 1999.