EQUAL PRIZE MONEY RECOGNIZED AS GREATEST MOMENT IN WOMEN’S SPORT
LOS ANGELES, California – The achievement of equal prize money for women at all four Grand Slam tennis events won the award for Greatest Sporting Moment of 2007 at the glittering annual Billies awards held in Los Angeles tonight.
The celebrated ‘Billies’ - an annual awards ceremony created and hosted by the Women’s Sports Foundation to honor work in the media that promotes the positive portrayal of girls and women in sport and physical activity - selected the landmark decisions in 2007 of the Wimbledon Championships and Roland Garros to offer equal prize-money in the men’s and women’s events as the key moment of last year. This completed the circle of Grand Slams with equal prize money, adding to the US Open (1973) and the Australian Open (2000).
“2007 will forever be remembered as the year of equality in tennis,” said Billie Jean King, founder of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and Women’s Sports Foundation, former tennis champion and long-time campaigner of equality in the women’s game. “This milestone represents an achievement of historic proportions, realized through the hard work and dedication of so many through the years to the cause of equality, and most importantly it has opened doors and created new opportunities well beyond the field of sport."
