.Sep 17, 2024, 09:18 PM ETWASHINGTON-- Billie Jean King will certainly come to be the first private ladies's athlete to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania as well as Mikie Sherrill of New Jacket announced Tuesday that their bipartisan laws had passed the House of Panels and would certainly be delivered to Head of state Joe Biden for his signature.The costs to honor Master, the ping pong Lobby of Famer and lobbyist, had already passed with one voice in the Senate.Sherrill, a Democrat, mentioned in a statement that Master's "lifetime of proposal and also hard work changed the landscape for girls and also females on the court, in the classroom, and also the office." The bill was offered in September 2023 on the 50th anniversary of King's triumph over Bobby Riggs in the "Struggle of the Sexes," still the most-watched tennis suit of perpetuity. The medal, granted through Congress for recognized accomplishments as well as contributions to culture, has actually recently been actually provided to professional athletes, including pitcher Jackie Robinson and also Roberto Clemente and also golf enthusiasts Port Nicklaus, Byron Nelson and Arnold Palmer.King had actually already been actually rewarded the Governmental Award of Freedom in 2009. Fitzpatrick, a Republican politician, says she has "defective barriers, led unexplored roads, as well as influenced countless folks to stand up proudly along with tenacity and principle in the fight for what is right.".