professional tennis. (7) Billie Jean helped found womenSports magazine and founded the Women’s Sports Foundation. Both have been at the forefront of advancing women’s voice in sports. (8) Billie Jean successfully lobbied for equal prize money for men and women at the 1973 U.S. Open Tennis Championships. It would take another 34 years for the other 3 major tournaments to all offer equal prize money. (9) In 1973, Billie Jean played a tennis match against Bobby Riggs, a former World Number 1 player who sought to undermine the credibility and prominence of women in sports. Billie Jean defeated Riggs in what became a firm declaration of women’s role in sports and society. (10) Billie Jean King was the first tennis player and woman to be named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year, one of the 100 Most Important Americans of the 20th Century by LIFE magazine, was the recipient of the 1999 Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, and has been admitted to the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and the National Women’s Hall of Fame. (11) In 2006, the United States Tennis Association recognized Billie Jean’s immeasurable impact on the sport of tennis by renaming the site of the US Open in her honor as the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, which is located in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, New York. This was the first time a major sporting complex was named after a woman. (12) In 2009, Billie Jean was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama for her impactful work advocating for the rights of women. She was the first female athlete to receive this honor. (13) In 2014, Billie Jean King founded the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative to empower companies and individuals to create inclusive work environments that celebrate and promote diversity and equality in the workplace. (14) In 2020, Fed Cup, the world cup of women’s tennis, was renamed the Billie Jean King Cup, making it the first global