Showing she has no plans of slowing down,like no plans whatsoever,Billie Jean King has had a packed week of appearances,awards and celebrations this week,celebrating the biggest day of them all-The WTA legend celebrated her 71st birthday on Saturday.
King's accomplishments are well known-she founded the WTA and is one of its greatest legends winning 39 Grand Slam titles in her career (12 in singles,16 doubles and 11 mixed doubles) Battle of the Sexes,equal prize money,U.S.Open venue named after her-the list goes on and on.
But it was some of her other contributions that have kept her very,very busy this week,one of them being a new one-the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative,which was launched Wednesday night at a New York gala.The initiative focuses on promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
"The amount of untapped human potential in our world is enormous,yet in so many places,challenges like race,gender,and sexuality are used to discriminate against men and women and prevent them from reaching their full potential," King writes on the Initiative's official website."
"The Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative was founded as part of an effort to challenge the way these differences are seen,and encourage companies,corporations and individuals to embrace those with diverse personalities and lifestyles for the positive and unique contributions they bring to the work place."
King's big week also including receiving an award from the Women's Forum of New York for being an out-standing women's leader-it was presented at a luncheon that would eventually raise $200,000 for Education Fund of the Women's Forum and to top it off,one of Kings most exciting initiatives over the years-World Team Tennis,which all of the biggest stars of the WTA have taken part in at some point in their careers,is celebrating the start of its 40th season,which will be the 2015 season.
And today,her birthday-we at wtatennis.com wish the WTA's biggest legend a Happy Birthday!
From the WTA website November 22nd.
