.Sep 17, 2024, 09:18 PM ETWASHINGTON-- Billie Jean King will become the very first private ladies's professional athlete to become awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania as well as Mikie Sherrill of New Shirt announced Tuesday that their bipartisan regulation had passed our home of Representatives and also will be actually sent out to President Joe Biden for his signature.The bill to recognize King, the ping pong Hall of Famer as well as lobbyist, had actually passed unanimously in the Senate.Sherrill, a Democrat, said in a declaration that King's "life time of campaigning for as well as hard work transformed the yard for girls and also females on the court, in the class, and the place of work." The bill was actually presented in September 2023 on the 50th wedding anniversary of King's triumph over Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexual activities," still the most-watched ping pong match of perpetuity. The medal, rewarded through Our lawmakers for recognized accomplishments and payments to society, has formerly been given to professional athletes, featuring baseball players Jackie Robinson as well as Roberto Clemente and golfers Jack Nicklaus, Byron Nelson and Arnold Palmer.King had already been rewarded the Presidential Award of Flexibility in 2009. Fitzpatrick, a Republican, says she has "busted barriers, led undiscovered roads, as well as motivated a great number of folks to stand happily with tenacity as well as principle in the fight for what corrects.".