Billie Jean King receives her star on the Paseo de la Fama: “I know that I am the first woman, but I hope not to be the last one, but only the beginning” | Sports | EUROtoday

After eleven within the morning, and earlier than the noise on the Hollywood Boulevard crossing with Vine Street, a girl approached the safety guards. “But who is it?” “Give a star. Billie Jean King.” “Ahhh well,” the passerby replied. “So that is deserved.” The feeling was widespread. The legend of tennis, winner of 39 Grand Slams, the lady who achieved equality in her sport and sport, which risked her profession when leaving the closet within the eighties, obtained probably the most glamorous and world recognition: a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Surrounded by buddies, household, tennis and actors, King, 81, couldn’t deny his pleasure for uncovering his star, a kind of that so many occasions stepped as a baby. Pioneer in the whole lot, she can be a pioneer on this: she is the primary girl to obtain a star beneath the class of sports activities leisure, created a few years in the past by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, who manages the well-known rose and gold stars stroll.

With sneakers and typically with some assist to stand up and get on the stage, King thanked to be honored by Hollywood. “Sport is entertainment, sport is entertainment,” he mentioned. “It is very important that the women of the sports world are honored by Hollywood,” he mentioned. Minutes after receiving the star, in an interview with El País, King defined the rationale for that significance. “Hollywood has a worldwide reach, so that has enormous importance; I always think in global terms,” ​​he mentioned, additionally bringing a sure nostalgia. “Not only that, but I am from the area, I come from Long Beach, California, below the road,” he joked, referring to town to the southern Los Angeles and the biggest sea port within the United States, the place he was born and fashioned. “We used to come and walk along the walk to see all the stars,” he mentioned. “But I remember that I never thought that I would ever have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I used to look at everyone else and say, ‘Oh, Minderes’, but I am delighted that they now include athletes, men and women. I know that I am the first woman, but I hope not to be the last one, but only the beginning. This will be a new beginning for women athletes.”

In the ceremony by which the star quantity 2,708 uncovered, on Monday at midday, King was wrapped by his spouse, the gossip Iliana Kloss, but additionally for extra ladies within the guild: Rosie Casals, Connie Spooner, Stacey Allaster and Maria Sharapova. The former Balcentist Magic Johnson and actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who made audio system to current it and, because the custom sends, reward it, additionally attended.

Johnson and King share a ardour for the game that has unfold past their stage on the courts: each are shareholders of the primary baseball staff of town, the Dodgers. They are companions and buddies. “She is one of the greatest, not only as a player, but as a person,” Johnson praises her. “It has been a flag bearer in the struggle for salary equality. All those young girls who win today should thank you,” he advised King, amongst applause. “You have always fought for the right thing, in social fights, against racism, for inclusion.”

In addition to his {many professional} achievements – comparable to his six occasions as primary on this planet, his 20 titles of Wimbledon, his creation of the WTA, the Association of Women Tennists, having given its identify to necessary trophies, its triumph within the so -called battle of the 1973 sexes towards Bobby Riggs, or the reception of the presidential medal of La Libertad by Barack Obama – the audio system have highlighted their related contribution to social causes from the speaker of their sports activities triumphs. Jamie Lee Curtis careworn the significance of King’s legacy. “She understands that the legacy is what they say about you, but, and I quote it, ‘what defines us are the contributions we make’, and the contributions of Billie Jean King are powerful: on the track, the public struggle, freedom.”

“He risked almost everything, but not everything,” recalled Jamie Lee Curtis about how, on the finish of the seventies, when she was married to her first husband, Larry, her secretary made public who maintained a romance and blackmail her to sue her, which made her need to make her homosexuality public and that sports activities contracts and tens of millions of {dollars} had been vanished. Curtis remembered a King phrase the place she mentioned: “When they took me out of the closet I lost all my economic support and thought it would be the end of my career. But I started living an authentic life and that life opened the doors to me, and opened them to millions and millions of people to live authentic lives.” An genuine and worthy lifetime of a Hollywood script.