.Sep 17, 2024, 09:18 PM ETWASHINGTON-- Billie Jean King are going to come to be the 1st personal girls's professional athlete to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mikie Sherrill of New Jacket introduced Tuesday that their bipartisan laws had passed the House of Representatives and also would be sent out to Head of state Joe Biden for his signature.The expense to honor Master, the tennis Hall of Famer and also activist, had currently passed unanimously in the Senate.Sherrill, a Democrat, mentioned in a statement that Master's "lifetime of proposal and hard work changed the garden for females and ladies on the court, in the class, and the workplace." The expense was actually offered in September 2023 on the 50th wedding anniversary of King's victory over Bobby Riggs in the "Fight of the Sexes," still the most-watched tennis suit of perpetuity. The medal, granted by Congress for notable success as well as payments to society, has actually earlier been provided to sportsmens, featuring pitcher Jackie Robinson as well as Roberto Clemente and golf players Port Nicklaus, Byron Nelson and also Arnold Palmer.King had presently been actually awarded the Governmental Medal of Liberty in 2009. Fitzpatrick, a Republican, claims she has "faulty barricades, led unexplored pathways, as well as influenced numerous people to stand up proudly along with tenacity and principle in the fight for what corrects.".