{"id":347826,"date":"2025-08-16T00:19:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T00:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/347826\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T00:19:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T00:19:14","slug":"billie-jean-king-brings-trailblazers-stories-to-a-new-generation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/347826\/","title":{"rendered":"Billie Jean King brings trailblazers\u2019 stories to a new generation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sports icon, civil rights advocate, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Billie Jean King is set to rally a new generation with \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Trailblazers-Unmatched-Womens-Tennis-Readers\/dp\/1524883603\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">T<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Trailblazers-Unmatched-Womens-Tennis-Readers\/dp\/1524883603\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">railblazers: The Unmatched Story of Women\u2019s Tennis, Young Readers Edition<\/a>,\u201d which was published this week in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Appealing to middle-grade readers &#8212; seven through 12 &#8212; the hardcover volume features biographies of more than 20 of the sport\u2019s most impactful champions, from Suzanne Lenglen and Althea Gibson to Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena.<\/p>\n<p>Written by King with Jolie C. Matthews and featuring captivating artwork by renowned Romanian illustrator Alexandra Badiu, the book hopes to motivate and empower young people around the world to blaze their own trails, speak up for others, and confidently embrace who they are.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so proud to be included in Billie Jean\u2019s book, among such amazing players,\u201d said Iga Swiatek, the former World No.1 and four-time Grand Slam champion, who also features.<\/p>\n<p>                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image  object-fit-cover-picture__img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Swiatek_book2.jpeg\" alt=\"Swiatek_book2\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt tells the story of us, of our careers in tennis in a really great way for kids to read. I hope lots of young people are going to grab a copy and be inspired by it, because tennis is a great sport.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In charting the careers of a roster of champions that also includes Ash Barty, Ons Jabeur, Naomi Osaka and wheelchair tennis legend Esther Vergeer, the book highlights themes of perseverance, gender equality, and the importance of standing up for one\u2019s beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>                        Swiatek hopes Billie Jean King\u2019s new book will inspire young players<\/p>\n<p>Jolie, who holds a PhD, is an expert on the socio-cultural dimensions of cognition\u00a0through the ways media, popular culture, and other cultural forces influence individual attitudes.<\/p>\n<p>The adult forerunner to this new publication was released in 2023 as part of commemorations marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the WTA by King in 1973. In turn, that book was an update of We Have Come A Long Way: The Story of Women\u2019s Tennis, a detailed history written by King with journalist Cynthia Starr in 1988.<\/p>\n<p>Issued by Andrews McMeel, \u201cTrailblazers: The Unmatched Story of Women\u2019s Tennis, Young Readers Edition\u201d can be found on <strong>Amazon<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sports icon, civil rights advocate, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Billie Jean King is set to rally&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[79,1068,661,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-347826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115035580982264604","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}