Featured events


7-9 September 2012
Brussels Games
Brussels

Brussels Gay Sports will offer a weekend of fun and fairplay in the capital of Europe, with volleyball, swimming, badminton, and tennis, as well as fitness and hiking.

Learn more HERE.
26-28 October 2012
QueergamesBern
Bern, Switzerland

The success of the first edition of the QueergamesBern proved the need for an LGBT multisport event in Switzerland. This year will be even bigger, with badminton, bowling, running, walking, floorball.

Learn more HERE.
17-20 January 2013
Sin City Shootout
Las Vegas
The 7th Sin City Shootout will feature softball, ice hockey, tennis, wrestling, basketball, dodgeball, bodybuilding and basketball.

Learn more HERE.

13-16 June 2013
IGLFA Euro Cup
Dublin
After this year's edition in Budapest at the EuroGames, the IGLFA Euro Cup heads to Dublin for 2013, hosted by the Dublin Devils and the Dublin Phoenix Tigers.

Learn more HERE.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

ESPN names Billie Jean King as one of the top 40 women athletes of the 40 years since Title IX

From ESPN's profile of Gay Games Ambassador Billie Jean King, number 11 in the top 40 women athletes of the last forty years, the period during which Title IX has been in effect, ensuring equality in access to sport for young American athletes:

It was a disparity King wouldn't forget. In 1970, she was one of nine players who broke from the tennis establishment. Accepting symbolic $1 contracts from promoter Gladys Heldman, they boycotted a tournament in which the female winner was set to receive one-eighth the prize money of the male winner. Their rebellion led to the development of the Virginia Slims Tour and, later, the Women's Tennis Association. In 1971, King was the first female athlete to earn $100,000 in a year, justifying the Virginia Slims slogan, "You've come a long way, baby!"

"The '70s were the perfect time for Billie Jean's leadership," says Pam Shriver, a 21-time Grand Slam doubles champ and now an ESPN analyst. "She was a great on-court champion, and the opportunity to dovetail with the feminist movement was perfect. She had the ideal personality; she embraced the challenge of gaining equality for women. Eventually, someone could have done it, but no one else in her era was capable of it."

In 1974, King founded the Women's Sports Foundation to better the lives of women through sports. In 1990, Life magazine named her one of the 100 most important Americans of the 20th century. And she has continued her fight into the 21st century, still very much a visible presence at age 68.

"Billie Jean has been so influential in helping women earn more in terms of respect, prize money and other opportunities," Shriver says. "Think of Maria Sharapova or Li Na in China. Commercial opportunities are huge for women tennis players, but women in all sports can tip a cap to Billie Jean."

Women out of sports, too.

Read in full HERE.


No comments: