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Megan Rapinoe, Billie Jean King, and 174 other female athletes signed an amicus brief in support of transgender girls and women playing sports as their gender identity. “As women and LGBTQ+ athletes,” says their brief, they “submit that all youth deserve an equal opportunity to participate in sports alongside their peers. Such equal opportunity benefits the entire sports community.” The brief was filed in Hecox v. Little, a lawsuit brought against the state of Idaho, which passed a law this year banning transgender girls and women from competing in school sports as girls and women. The law also allows for...

A $52 million coronavirus hospital once billed as “crucial” by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio served a total of 79 patients before closing May 13. An exposé by The New York Times details the bureaucratic debacle that unfolded after the temporary hospital was rushed into existence at Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The piece by Michael Rothfeld, Robin Stein, and Susan C. Beachy covered “missteps made at every level of government” soon after the hospital’s April 10 opening. “I basically got paid $2,000 a day to sit on my phone and look at Facebook,” a nurse practitioner...

NEW YORK (AP) - Tennis icon Billie Jean King is not mincing words about the many white women who voted for Donald Trump, saying they "really don't like themselves." King, who led the fight for equal pay for women in tennis, also says she feels there is more misogyny now than when she defeated Bobby Riggs in the famous "Battle of the Sexes" match in 1973, the subject of the new movie starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell. "I think there's a lot of misogyny - I think it's higher now than it was," King said in an interview Tuesday...

Jean King, Bobby Riggs an 'elaborate mob setup' Tennis star Bobby Riggs, top, and Billie Jean King are shown in action during the "Battle of the Sexes" match in the Astrodome in Houston, on Sept. 20, 1973. The ultimate “Battle of the Sexes” — a 1973 match between the No. 2 -ranked woman tennis player and a retired male Wimbledon champion — was rigged so Mafia bosses could cash in on the betting, a new report claims. The incredible claims have been lobbed at the reputation of the late hard-court hustler Bobby Riggs, by one of his former country club...

"HELLO AGAIN EVERYONE, I'm Howard Cosell. We're delighted to be able to bring you this very, very quaint, unique event." On Thursday night, Sept. 20, 1973, 50 million Americans, fatigued by Vietnam and Watergate, tuned in to see whether a woman could defeat a man on a tennis court. Dubbed "The Battle of the Sexes," the match pitted Billie Jean King, the 29-year-old champion of that summer's Wimbledon and a crusader for the women's liberation movement, against Bobby Riggs, the 55-year-old gambler, hustler and long-ago tennis champ who had willingly become America's bespectacled caricature of male chauvinism. Before 30,472 at...

Here is video of President Obama yesterday getting the facts of Tennis star Billie Jean King's career all wrong as he presented her the Medal of Freedom at the White House. You can see King's face as Obama cited her stats, but did so inaccurately. “They didn’t get any of my facts right,” King lightheartedly noted afterward. “Did you see all the – how many titles I won? I was cracking up.” “Not even in the ballpark,” she continued. King found it amusing, and said her accomplishments on the court aren’t the most important. “I thought it was adorable,” she...

Says he flubbed stats Says he flubbed stats By CAROL E. LEE Before presenting tennis legend Billie Jean King with the Medal of Freedom Wednesday, President Obama ticked off some ... ... of her accomplishments: 12 Grand Slam titles, 101 doubles titles, 67 singles titles. “Pretty good, Billie Jean,” he quipped. But he didn’t get any of it right, according to King herself. “They didn’t get any of my facts right,” King lightheartedly noted afterward. “Did you see all the – how many titles I won? I was cracking up.” “Not even in the ballpark,” she continued. King found it...

Tennis great Billie Jean King waves to the crowd after remarks honoring her by former U.S. President Bill Clinton (L) during a tennis match at Madison Square Garden in New York March 2, 2009. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (R) speaks with other participants about the National Clean Energy Project and building a new smart energy grid for the U.S. following a round-table discussion in Washington, February 23, 2009. Former President Bill Clinton is greeted by neighborhood activist Annie Abrams during a luncheon for former Arkansas Treasurer Jimmie Lou Fisher at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Ark., Tuesday,...