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ITN Source
USA: ATHLETICS - Star women athletes gather to unveil plans for a Hall of Fame dedicated to women's sports
USA: ATHLETICS - Star women athletes gather to unveil plans for a Hall of Fame dedicated to women's sports
A women's sports hall of fame named after tennis legend Billie Jean King will be part of the National Sports Museum in New York. The Billie Jean King Sports Center will be the first in the nation to be dedicated to women's sports while the museum itself is the first of its kind, to encompass all sports, in the country. Speaking on Tuesday (October 17) at the unveiling of the plans for the Center, King said: "This is just the beginning. This will be the only comprehensive women's sports museum in the world. With this naming, I am deeply honoured, with a renewed sense of responsibility and honour and to uphold and champion the rights of women and women athletes." During her professional career, King won 12 singles titles, 14 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, and 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. In addition to being considered one the greatest tennis players and women athletes, she is a champion of women's rights and women's issues in sports. Martina Navratilova, nine time Wimbledon women's singles champion was also at the ceremony. "It's just been a long time coming to get this kind of recognition for women athletes that we are going to have in this Billie Jean King Sports Center here in New York," she said. American track and field athlete Jackie Joyner Kersee, winner of heptathlon Olympic gold in 1988, unveiled the Wilma Rudolph's 1961 Associated Press Athlete of the year trophy. "There are a lot of women in other countries who don't see the significance of sports and how sports can be of value to them," she said. "So someone like myself along with Noelle who I can go to Casablanca and help deliver that message, I am willing to do that because I just feel like there are so many young women out there that don't even know that sports is an opportunity and having been able to teach them so much about life and it can change the socio-economics that's going on. It just bridges that gap." Olympic figure skater Sasha Cohen, silver medallist in Turin this year, is donating a pair of figure skates to the project. She said the Sports Center is important because it brings together all the different sports under one roof. "It's wonderful to have a home, to have a place people can see the pictures, be inspired and kind of get a sense of what its like," she said. King herself emphasised that the Center will be not just to reflect women's sporting excellence, but should be an inspiration to women of all abilities. "I think sometimes people think it's just physical," she said. "But it's really mind, body and spirit, mind body and soul together integrated. And that's what's important about being active, about being in sports. Of course there's a few of us, crazy ones that want to be the best in the world. But that's not what's important. It's the health issue, the fun, the exhilaration, the expression. It's really self expression."
ITN Source | October 19, 2006
