.Sep 17, 2024, 09:18 PM ETWASHINGTON-- Billie Jean King will certainly become the 1st specific women's athlete to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania as well as Mikie Sherrill of New Shirt introduced Tuesday that their bipartisan legislation had passed the House of Reps and would be delivered to President Joe Biden for his signature.The costs to recognize King, the tennis Lobby of Famer and protestor, had actually passed unanimously in the Senate.Sherrill, a Democrat, said in a claim that Master's "life time of advocacy and also effort transformed the landscape for women and also women on the courthouse, in the class, and the workplace." The expense was presented in September 2023 on the 50th wedding anniversary of Master's triumph over Bobby Riggs in the "Fight of the Sexes," still the most-watched tennis match of perpetuity. The medal, rewarded through Congress for recognized accomplishments and payments to society, has previously been offered to athletes, including pitcher Jackie Robinson as well as Roberto Clemente and also golfers Port Nicklaus, Byron Nelson and Arnold Palmer.King had actually actually been granted the Presidential Award of Freedom in 2009. Fitzpatrick, a Republican, states she has "defective barricades, led unexplored paths, as well as inspired plenty of folks to stand up happily along with guts and also conviction in the fight for what corrects.".