Obstacles
Success doesn’t come easy…all of Billie Jean King’s achievements were won with hard work and dedication.
Becoming number one in the world isn’t an easy thing to do—and it didn’t happen right away. Her family didn’t have a large income and was struggling to support her financially, so she didn’t always have access to the best resources and training. Her results weren’t always victories, either. When Billie Jean was an up-and-coming tennis star, she lost just as many important matches as she won. It drove a sense of perseverance in her though, playing every day as if it were a championship. Still, her frustration grew, getting so close to a title but missing it at the last moment. She trained, played, and competed, until finally in 1966 she won her first major singles championship at Wimbledon, one of the happiest moments in her career.
One of the main struggles she faced was the discrimination received as a woman. Girls were never given the same funding and support growing up, and athletics as a career was discouraged. So many women athletes weren’t earning enough money to make a living. Even when Billie Jean’s profits started growing, it was much less than what men got for winning the same championship titles.
Extra Info/Stats
In the US, there were no professional women's tennis players. They were considered amateur, so they were only paid from their winnings. The start of women's pro tennis was the Virginia Slims Series in 1970, led by Gladys Heldman and nine women players (including Billie Jean King).
The US open was the first Grand Slam to offer equal prize money in 1973.
Wimbledon was the last Grand Slam to do it in 2007.
Aside of her career, she was also struggling with personal realizations and drama. Billie Jean discovered that she liked women, starting a secret relationship with her hairdresser in the early 70’s. Growing up in a conservative family, she didn’t want to disappoint them, and feared what would happen if she came out. In 1981, she was publicly outed as gay in a messy court scandal. It became very detrimental to her career, as she lost nearly 2 million dollars in endorsements. It was a hard time for her mentally as well, as she struggled to come to terms with herself. Over time though, she slowly built back everything she had, and become a constant advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.