NEW YORK — After a rousing tribute from former first woman Michelle Obama, Billie Jean King on Monday celebrated the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Open changing into the primary carrying tournament to provide equal prize money to male and female competition, promising by no means to forestall combating to handle that hard-won development.
“While we celebrate today, our work is far from done,” King stated in a speech to a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd between night time suits. Echoing a quote from Coretta Scott King, she stated: “Struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and you win it in every generation.”
Obama offered the 79-year-old tennis legend through recalling how King, the U.S. Open champion in 1972, rallied her fellow women gamers to threaten a boycott of the following yr’s match except women were given the similar pay as males. It used to be introduced that summer season that the women’s champion’s paycheck would build up $15,000 in order that each males’s and women’s champions would each and every obtain $25,000.
It would take 34 years earlier than the entire different Grand Slam occasions adopted go well with. This yr, the U.S. Open winners will each and every obtain $3 million, with overall participant reimbursement emerging to $65 million.
“Let us remember, all of this is far bigger than a champions paycheck,” Obama said. “This is about how women are seen and valued in this world. We have seen how quickly progress like this can be taken away if we are not mindful and vigilant, if we do not keep remembering and advocating and organizing and speaking out and, yes, voting.”
Obama, who previous sat within the stadium along with her husband, former President Barack Obama, famous that King’s fulfillment got here the similar yr she went on beat Bobby Riggs within the “Battle of the Sexes,” when he infamously stated women “belong in the bedroom and the kitchen, in that order.”
“Billie Jean teaches us that when things lie in the balance, we all have a choice to make,” Obama said. “We can either wait around and accept what we’re given. … or we can make our own stand. We can use whatever platforms we have to speak out and fight to protect the progress we’ve made, and level the playing field for all of our daughters and their daughters.”
The rite concluded with vocalist Sara Bareilles’ hovering rendition of her hit track, “Brave,” and video tributes from the sector’s biggest tennis gamers, together with Coco Gauff, Roger Federer, Iga Swiatek, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, all pronouncing, “Thank you, Billie Jean.”
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
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