.Sep 17, 2024, 09:18 PM ETWASHINGTON-- Billie Jean King will definitely come to be the initial private women's sportsmen to be granted the Congressional Gold Medal.Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey announced Tuesday that their bipartisan laws had passed your home of Reps and also would certainly be sent out to Head of state Joe Biden for his signature.The expense to honor Master, the ping pong Hall of Famer and protestor, had actually passed all in the Senate.Sherrill, a Democrat, claimed in a claim that King's "life-time of advocacy and also effort transformed the yard for ladies and also gals on the court, in the class, and also the office." The costs was introduced in September 2023 on the 50th anniversary of King's success over Bobby Riggs in the "Struggle of the Sexes," still the most-watched ping pong match of all time. The medal, rewarded by Our lawmakers for notable accomplishments as well as payments to society, has earlier been actually given to sportsmens, featuring pitcher Jackie Robinson and also Roberto Clemente and also golfers Port Nicklaus, Byron Nelson and also Arnold Palmer.King had actually currently been actually awarded the Governmental Medal of Freedom in 2009. Fitzpatrick, a Republican politician, states she possesses "faulty barricades, led uncharted paths, as well as encouraged countless individuals to stand proudly along with guts and also sentiment in the fight for what corrects.".