King makes like a queen

NEWPORT BEACH — Venus Williams wasn’t the only big name heard at the Newport Beach Country Club Sunday night.

There was a tennis legend and a pioneer for women in sports at Breakers Stadium and she spoke at a press conference, just outside the NBCC.

Her name? Billie Jean King.

She’s the co-founder of World Team Tennis, but she wasn’t only talking about her league. She also spoke about Williams, pay for women in sports and even jackrabbits, mainly because she is a Long Beach Poly product.

But the tennis great, who won six Wimbledon singles titles, also discussed a hot local topic. She provided some words of wisdom about the story of Allison Stokke, the Newport Harbor High pole vaulter who received unwanted attention on the Internet for her looks and made national news in late May.

Stokke recently graduated from Newport Harbor and will compete for UC Berkeley next year. She was the Newport Harbor Female Athlete of the Year, who won a state title in the pole vault as a freshman and reached the state championships last month.

King had never heard about the Stokke story, but still spoke on the subject.

“If she’s getting attention she actually has a forum,” said King, a four-time U.S. Open champion who is also known as one of the most important crusaders for women gaining equality in sports. “If you have a forum, you have an opportunity to tell your story and to tell your feelings.”

King has done plenty of that throughout her lifetime. She believes the media has power, though she has an opinion on that topic, too.

“Ninety percent of the media is controlled by men, so we see the eyes through men’s eyes not through our own eyes,” she said. “So it’s important for us to be 50-50 in the media, so we see it through both eyes. But what’s popular, because of the control is by men we’re going to see it through their eyes. They’re the ones who always bring it up how we look.”

Still King does her best to use the media to her advantage.

“In my day, we would not have this press conference,” King said. “This is a big deal. Every time I come to a press conference I know it’s a privilege. Without the media no one knows what you think, what you feel or what you look like. I think [athletes] need to understand why it’s important to talk and exchange discussion with the media. I think it’s vital. Access to the media is what makes your sport popular.”

Even though King did not know about the Stokke story, she could identify what the Sailors’ pole vaulter went through during her senior year. The topic brought back memories for her.

“I looked at my Bobby Riggs-King tape about eight years ago,” King said of the match known as “The Battle of the Sexes” on Sept. 20, 1973. “I had never seen it and I never wanted to see it … Howard Cosell, he was really the announcer of his day and he did the match. All he talked about was my looks when I was being carried out on this Egyptian litter. That really hurt my feelings because I am an athlete, too. He did not talk once about my accomplishments. And, women want their accomplishments to be talked about, not just their looks. We’re just like the guys in a way. We want our accomplishments to be stated.”

Before she answered another question, she made this statement: “I think if God gives you better looks you’re going to have more opportunities.”

STEVE VIRGEN may be reached at (714) 966-4616 or at [email protected].