Groundbreakers

-I'm so happy to see you.

-[Billie] When women come together to share their personal stories of pain, progress, and perseverance, something incredible happens.

-I've had some really great experiences, and this is going to be at the top of the list.

-[Billie] We move from being isolated to being in community with one another.

-I went through this, I struggled before I became the best in the world in the heptathlon.

-That's such a cool thing to say.

[ Both laughing ] -I know!

-I'm Billie Jean King, tennis champion and equal rights activist.

[ Cheering ] I invited world-class athletes to team up for a series of one-on-one conversations to share their powerful stories of their individual roads to success.

-I started at a dust field because they told us that we were not allowed to stand on the field because it was for the boys.

-[Billie] Discussing everything from mental health to equal pay... -[Julie] We won that first World Cup, we won the Olympics.

We were literally still making $10 a day.

-$10 a day?

-Yes.

-I think the biggest battles really have been with myself.

-I got outed, so I lost all my endorsements in 24 hours.

-[Jackie] Your voice gave others the voice, too, to stand up.

And I want to say thank you, because some of us don't have the strength.

-♪ Don't underestimate me ♪ [ Upbeat music ] ♪ Oh, right here, right now... ♪ -I competed at the Olympics with a fractured shin.

-How did you do that?

-[Jackie] If I talked about my mental health, I was considered weak.

-These stories must be shared from one generation to the next, so we can keep building on the progress we've made.

-[Diana] The most amazing thing has been to see the impact it has had all over the world.

-They put that medal around your neck, and I realized, wow, maybe I really have had an impact as a woman in sports.

-My role now is I've gotta mentor you to carry this over the line eventually.

You keep running, you sprint.

[ Upbeat music ] "Groundbreakers" was made possible, in part, by The WNET Groups "Chasing the Dream" initiative, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

-I'm Billie Jean King.

In my tennis career, I won 39 Major titles, and I was the number-one tennis player in the world for six years.

But I'm most proud of being a champion of equality.

Equality isn't only about the money.

It's also about the message.

It's essential that all genders are treated as equals and that we all have the same amount of societal respect, access and power.

More than 50 years ago, the United States passed a landmark piece of legislation called Title IX.

It was a major step towards guaranteeing the equality for all that is promised in the Constitution.

Title IX changed everyday life for women in the U.S.

It created educational opportunities, access to employment, sports, scholarships, and activities that had previously been denied to women.

It created a path to equality, the kind of equality I definitely didn't have access to as a child growing up without Title IX protections.

When I was a child, women were not encouraged to play sports or pursue a career.

But more than that, women couldn't even get a credit card, serve on a jury, fight sexual harassment, or in some cases, even fight sexual assault.

Women were treated as second-class citizens.

This one piece of legislation gave women legal protections and made an impact that has rippled through society, improving lives for over 50 years.

The fight for equality is my enduring legacy, and I know that sharing our stories is the only way we will continue to build on one another's successes.

I invited Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Naomi Osaka, Nancy Lieberman, Chloe Kim, Diana Flores, Julie Foudy, and Suni Lee to team up for a series of one-on-one conversations.

From one generation to the next, these women are leaders who are continuing the fight, and their personal experiences can teach us all about the ongoing pursuit of equality.

Let me tell you about Diana Flores.

I met Diana filming the 2023 Super Bowl commercial for the NFL.

-♪ Rock with me, all my girls with me ♪ ♪♪ -[Billie] At 24 years old, Diana is the face of flag football.

And with the support of the NFL and the International Federation of American Football, Diana is actively campaigning for flag football to be played at the 2028 Olympics.

[ Upbeat music ] I asked Diana to meet with me because she is doing for flag football what we did for tennis, making space for women in a sport dominated by men.

[ Upbeat music ] -Hi!

-Yay!

How are you?

-I'm good, how are you?

-It's great to see you.

-I'm so happy to see you.

-Great to see you.

-[ Chuckles ] -A long trip?

Where are you living?

Are you in Mexico?

-Yes, I live in Mexico City.

So I am happy to be... -Still?

-To be here with you.

I am working on some things in Mexico for my sport.

Um, I'm working with the International American Football Federation, also, to keep growing the sport, not only in the States but... -They run the flag football, right?

-Yes, with the NFL, IFF, so it has been... -NFL's doing well, I hope?

-Yes, so... -They got the power, baby.

-Yes!

They are really pushing the sport forward, so it is a great time for us.

-That's great, well, I think what you've done also is help, you know, get it going more forward, getting the interest, you know, they're interested in you, then they get interested in the sport.

-I've received a lot of messages from girls saying, "Oh, I didn't know I could play that sport.

Now I'm gonna try to find a team nearby my town."

Other girls saying, "I used to play flag football, but my parents said that it was a men's sport, and now my parents changed their mind."

-Because you have to see it to be it sometimes.

-You're right.

For me, the biggest thing and the most amazing thing has been to see the impact it has had, not only in women and girls from the States, Mexico, for all over the world.

-[Billie] With more than a half a million participants, flag football is one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States -- specifically growing its popularity with girls and young women.

-[Diana] I started when I was really young, at the age of eight, and... -With your dad -- got you, right?

-Yes, because of my dad.

My dad used to play American football and he introduced me to this amazing world.

He brought me to my first flag football practice.

-[Billie] We got very blessed to have the parents we have, I think made the difference.

My dad played catch with me when I was three, four, five.

I wanted him to get me a bat, and he wouldn't get me a bat.

He was a firefighter, we didn't have that much money.

It was tight all the time.

And the same thing happened with my tennis racket.

He wouldn't buy me a tennis racket.

He said, "You want to play?

Then you find a way to get your first racket."

And so I went to the neighbors -- thank you, neighbors.

And they were so sweet to me, they felt so sorry for me.

Th-They ma-- They made up these jobs, you know, these pseudo jobs.

-Uh-huh.

-And then I had my $8.29 in the Mason jar up in the cupboard.

Got an $8-- $8.29 racket.

I went out to the park, I'd only been on the court twice, and I knew what I wanted.

I wanted to be number one in the world.

[ Upbeat music ] I truly believed that if I was number one in the world, people in power would listen to my pleas for equality, and I could use my voice to make the world a better place for everyone.

[ Upbeat music ] Two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time World Cup champion Julie Foudy was co-captain of the legendary 1990s U.S. soccer team... -[Announcer] Up inside the box, and the keeper makes an error there.

Chastain, missed.

Header goal!

Foudy, 2-0 U.S... [ Crowd cheering ] -[Billie] ...making it a mainstream sport.

I asked Julie to meet with Olympian Suni Lee, the gymnastics phenom, who was also the first Hmong-American to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

[ Upbeat music ] -[Julie] Whoa, look at this place.

Suni!

-Hi.

[ Both chuckling ] -Hi!

-Hi, how are you?

-Hi, hi, hi.

Look at you in your beautiful green.

-Thank you, you look great.

-When you were growing up, could you have pictured yourself in a packed gym of, you know, 15,000 people roaring for you in college?

Did you even have that vision?

-I always just envisioned myself, like, at the Olympics, really.

Like, in a really big stadium, like, with the spotlight, like, on the beam.

-So just watching you guys do the beam, full disclosure, I have a lot of anxiety watching it, I'm like... [ Mock gasping ] -You know, every time people say they're scared of it, I always tell them, if you can do it on the floor, you can do it on the beam.

-Oh, really?

-You just gotta get past the... -Four inches, and you shouldn't be on a beam four inches.

Why couldn't they've made it, like, eight inches?

That would make more sense.

Like, give us a plank-- -Then it wouldn't be as fun.

-It's still a plank, it's like you're walking the plank.

It's just a little wider.

-It wouldn't be as fun.

-Safer?

No?

Ugh, no, I couldn't do it.

Suni, I understand you were the first Hmong-American to go to the Olympics?

-Mm-hmm.

-Is that right?

-Yes, I was.

-So that means you're also the first Hmong-American to win... -To win in the Olympics.

-Yes!

That's crazy.

-I know, and like, my parents have been really supportive too, about it, because normally in, like, our tradition, I guess, it's, like, the girl is, like, grown to be, like, this wife, and, like, she's very, like, put together, cleans the house, like, does all of that stuff... -No competing in Olympics.

-No, and it's incredible to see, like, the changes that have happened since I've won the Olympics and... -Really, how so?

-Yes.

I mean, people will come up to me all the time, and they're like, "Because of you, like, my parents have, like, pushed me to follow my dreams."

-Aww!

-And I'm like, th-that's incredible to see because... -Yeah.

-When I was, like, younger, I never really had, like, any Asian, like, representation, like, that I could, like, look up to, and be like, oh, like, I wanna be like her.

-Mm-hmm.

-And so for people to come up to me and say, "I want to be like you, and my parents are pushing me to be in sports and to follow our dreams," like, it's incredible.

-And it makes a difference.

-Speaking of changes, tell me more about, like, the fight.

-Oh, you wanna to go all the way back to the '90s?

-Yeah, I do... -Oh, gosh, Suni, you weren't even alive.

-[ Laughs ] -Um, when we got on the national team, Mia Hamm, you might have heard of.

-Mm-hmm.

-Kristine Lilly, Brandy Chastain.

Back then, Mia was 15, I was 16 years old.

-Wow.

-So, I know for the gymnastics world that's pretty common but not so much for the soccer world.

-Oh, really?

-So we were that first generation of soccer players that came through that were, hey, why aren't we in a World Cup?

And there was no women's World Cup at the time.

There was no women's soccer in the Olympics.

Men had been playing the World Cup since the '30s, and we had to fight to get the first ever Women's World Cup.

And, fun fact, technically, FIFA didn't want to share the Men's World Cup name competition, I guess.

And so it was called the M&M Cup.

-Wow.

-First World Cup for women was in 1991.

-[Billie] In November 1991, 18 eager young American women flew to southern China to represent the United States in the inaugural Women's World Cup.

To everyone's surprise, the U.S. team kept winning match after match, beating powerhouse soccer countries like Germany, Sweden, and Norway.

The Americans started to be known for their scrappy, untraditional approach to the game.

And after playing teams from 12 different countries, the United States emerged victorious, winning the World Cup, and establishing themselves as a force in soccer.

The world celebrated America's incredible achievement, but it seemed news of the success didn't quite make it home to America.

-So after all of that, like, how did things change?

-When we got home -- we won it, mind you, we got home to the United States and we were like, "This is gonna change everything!

Everyone's going to be so excited about women's soccer, about soccer in general in this country," and there were literally three people at the airport to greet us... -No!

-And no one knew about it.

It wasn't on TV, it was pre social media, of course.

I was in college, and I literally got back to school, and the professor was like, "Where have you been?

You've missed this final and this final."

I was like, I told you I was going to this thing called the World Cup.

So, needless to say, we did not change soccer in this country.

No one knew about it, then the first ever women's soccer in the Olympics actually happened in Atlanta in 1996.

-Wow, oh, my gosh.

-Yeah.

And the '96 Olympics was amazing because, one, you're in the Olympics.

Two, it's the first time women's soccer's ever been in the Olympics.

But three, really, it was ultra amazing because you were in your home country, and so, literally, wherever you went, people went nuts.

Me and my teammates were on a plane heading to Atlanta, and this is how America responds when they know you're the Olympic team.

The entire plane literally stood up and started singing the national anthem to us.

-That's amazing.

-[Billie] Nancy Lieberman is a pioneer in women's basketball with a career that has spanned five decades.

Growing up in Queens, New York, Nancy fell in love with basketball while still in high school.

At only 17, Lieberman made the U.S. women's basketball team, winning a gold medal at the Pan American Games and a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics.

She went on to play eight years in the Women's Professional Basketball League.

-If somebody came up to me today and said, you know, "Are you a good basketball player?"

And I'd say, "No, I'm a great basketball player."

-[Billie] Then, at age 38, Nancy was the oldest player drafted into the inaugural season of the WNBA.

12 years later, she broke her own record when she signed a seven-day WNBA contract and played for the Detroit Shock.

At age 50, Lieberman coached in the WNBA before becoming the second ever woman to join the coaching staff of a men's professional team, the Sacramento Kings.

-[Nancy] We have a mantra.

All the teams that I've ever coached or been around: no excuses, no explanations.

Alright, can you guys get my good side?

-[Billie] I asked Nancy to meet with Chloe Kim, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and the first athlete, male or female, to take home all four major snowboarding titles, including the Olympics, the World Championships, the Youth Olympics, and the X Games.

-There you are.

-Hello, we meet again.

-We meet again.

Oh, this outfit is giving.

-How are you?

-Good.

I'm dying to know what gave you the confidence to do something that's never really been done before.

To be the first, I mean, I feel like I've kind of been the first at a couple of things, but you really paved the way for women in sports, and you're a pioneer yourself in so many ways.

So I'm curious to know.

-For me to say, I knew I was a pioneer and I knew -- I-I had no clue.

I played sports, I needed it.

I needed it because of what was going on in my house.

We had no food, I had no father, no electricity.

We were one grandparent away from food stamps.

I was so broken, that I needed something to occupy my mind.

I was mad because people were demeaning me, saying, "What's this little redheaded little Jewish girl doing playing in the schoolyard?"

My grandma used to say to me, "Walk like a girl.

Your shoulders back," you know?

And then the kids on the court would say, "Act like a boy."

And I was so conflicted, you know what I mean?

Like, my shoulders were rounded.

I'd walk in, my grandma would say, "Act like a girl.

Okay."

And it's like, when people tell your mother, "What's wrong with your daughter?

Maybe you should take her to a psychologist."

You're like, I mean, are you kidding me?

I'm not robbing people.

I'm not carjacking people.

I'm not in a gang.

I'm playing sports.

-I would be really angry, too, if I were in your position.

Like, basically being told to be someone that you're not, that's very frustrating.

-[Nancy] I didn't play basketball to be an Olympian.

I didn't play to be a Hall of Famer or a groundbreaker or whatever the heck they say that I've done.

I needed it.

And all those other things were a byproduct of hard work and grind and opportunity.

-That is interesting that, you know, for you, that Olympic dream that a lot of athletes pursue, that wasn't a goal of yours, because it wasn't there.

But for me, it was there.

-On the '76 Olympic team, that was the first time women's basketball was ever an Olympic sport.

-Wow.

-I was 14 years old when I went to my first U.S. tryout, and I was like... Chloe, I swear to God, I walked in the gym at Queen's College, and there were 250 girls.

I don't think I've ever told this to anybody.

I stood in the gym, and they pinned the number on me and I just went, I'm not sick.

There's nothing wrong with me.

There's 250 other people here, girls.

-Wow.

-And I couldn't wait that night to go home and tell my mother, I'm so tired of people telling me what I'm not.

-That's incredible.

You have had such a remarkable career.

Like, what does it mean to you to be the first?

-It changed everything for everybody.

-Right.

-It had never been done.

A high school player had never made a USA team, much less an Olympic team.

I knew I had the pressure, if you will, of being kind of the face of my sport.

You had the pressure of being the face of your sport at, you know, 13, 14, 15.

Same thing with myself, and I remember at the '76 Olympics, we win the silver.

You know, you get up on that podium, you've seen it a million times.

You bend over, they put that medal around your neck, you know, and you're just -- you see the American flag, and all your family.

And I realized, wow, maybe I really have had an impact as a woman in sports.

Like, when I look back and even talk to my teammates now is, can you believe that we were the first?

-First.

-The first.

-Really the first.

Every story you're telling, I'm like, wow.

Inspiration, inspiration, inspiration.

-[Billie] Jackie Joyner-Kersee has been called the greatest female all-around athlete in history.

Her hard work and natural talent in track & field earned her three golds, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals.

"Sports Illustrated" even celebrated her with its cover, captioned, "Super Woman."

-I'm not trying to tell you to be Olympic athletes, but I'm also not telling you not to dare to dream.

-[Billie] After 30 years, Joyner-Kersee still holds the world record in the heptathlon, which she set at the 1988 Olympics.

-You know, if you work hard in life, you know, the impossible, you know, is possible.

-[Billie] I wanted Jackie to sit with Naomi Osaka, the Japanese tennis pro who has been ranked number one in the world, and won four Grand Slams -- two Australian Opens, and two U.S.

Opens.

Naomi has not only become a global fashion icon, but she has also been a voice for justice and social change.

-How you doing?

-Good.

[ Indistinct muttering ] -How you feeling?

-I'm feeling good.

-Good.

-How are you feeling?

-Love the sunshine, I'm out here.

I'm feeling good, though, you know?

-That's good.

Can I ask you a question?

-Mm-hmm.

-When did you realize you fell in love with your sport?

-I started running at the age of nine.

-Mm-hmm.

-And I wasn't one of the best girls.

-Were you running, like, for fun or like... -For fun.

-Oh, okay.

-And I loved it.

I went to my first track meet, I finished last, and I said to myself, if I can improve a tenth of a second if I was running, a half of an inch if I was jumping, that meant the work that we were doing was paying off.

-Mmm.

-I didn't have a track, didn't even know what a track looked like.

Ran in the park.

The coach told us that one lap around was 400 meters, and I could never complete one lap, you know?

And I was like, wow, I must not be good.

But when I got older, I realized it was 1,200 meters.

That's why I couldn't go one lap around.

[ Laughter ] So -- But the biggest thing was I enjoyed it, I had fun.

It didn't matter where I finished.

And even though, like, fourth place, fifth place, we got all these different color ribbons.

And then I realized the top three got hardware.

And I was like, well, I gotta learn how to be in the top three, not knowing the top three would make national teams and Olympic teams.

And that's how it started with me.

But the most important thing that I said I could never lose was not having fun.

I enjoyed it, I enjoyed showing up.

Living, you know, in East St. Louis in the Midwest of the country, and it's 102 degrees out there.

I'm out there every summer.

Like, no, I'm not hot.

[ Laughter ] -For me, I really love watching track athletes because I feel like you guys are like an athlete, you know what I mean?

Like, I just remember being super young and watching the Olympics and the track & field athletes in the Olympics were, like, the best event.

So I just loved sitting in front of the TV and watching you guys run.

-I mean, there's so many things we could talk about in your space, tennis.

When you talk about the equal pay, and you all have really been strong leaders in making sure that the prize money is the same for the women as it is for the men.

You know, because I know what Billie Jean has done has done over the years, and then the Williams sisters, and then now.

-You know, knowing the history behind tennis and the fight for equal pay, and just seeing how it's the forefront of it and, you know, seeing Billie Jean King fight for equal pay, and the fight is never over.

-No.

-Um, and I've learned so much about Patsy Mink.

-Yeah.

-And how much incredible work that she did.

There's a lot of people fighting fights for us that we don't even know about.

-In the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement was thriving.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were both passed, expanding government protections to citizens of all backgrounds.

But a few brilliant people knew that more needed to be done to specifically advance women in all areas of society.

Back in 1969, a part-time teacher at the University of Maryland kept applying for a full-time position, but was told she wasn't being hired because she came on too strong for a woman.

Motivated by this rejection, Bernice Sandler researched her rights and found what she needed -- a 1967 executive order signed by President Lyndon Johnson that barred organizations with federal contracts from discriminating on the basis of sex.

With the order in hand and the help of the Women's Equity Action League, she filed a class action complaint against all universities and colleges in the country.

In 1970, Sandler shared her experience with the U.S. House of Representatives' Edith Green's subcommittee on higher education.

In these hearings, the foundation of Title IX was set, and a bill was formed.

In the House, the legislation was championed by Green and Congresswoman Patsy Takemoto Mink, who worked tirelessly to ensure passage of Title IX.

Mink knew discrimination firsthand, as well.

-It's always been my belief that, so long as any part of our society, uh, adheres to a sexist notion that men should do certain things and women should do certain things, then we'll never be rid of the basic causes of sex discrimination.

-[Billie] As a child, Mink dreamed of becoming a medical doctor.

But after earning her undergraduate degree from the University of Hawaii, she was rejected from 20 medical schools because of her gender.

Mink pivoted and decided to pursue a law degree instead.

But even after earning her degree, Patsy found it difficult to get work in the legal profession because of her status as a married woman.

- It's very difficult getting into -- into school, and getting into the professions.

I couldn't find a job, and when all of my contemporaries at home say, "Oh, my goodness, what you've done to politics at home," and, you know, "I wish we had never heard of Patsy Mink", I'll say, well, it's because of all of your attitudes that drove me into politics.

If you'd given me a job when I came home from law school, I would have been very happy just drawing a paycheck each month.

-[Billie] Patsy Mink eventually found her place in politics, winning a seat in the House of Representatives in 1964, becoming the first woman of color to serve in the U.S. Congress, and a central figure in the Title IX legislation.

Title IX was formally introduced in Congress by Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana, and was its chief Senate sponsor for congressional debate when it finally became law in June of 1972.

It's 37 words.

Within those 37 words, there's the word "activity."

And I knew Senator Birch Bayh pretty well, he's one of my heroes, he said they kept, like, "Should we leave it in?

Should we take it out?

Should we leave it in?

What does it pertain to?

We really don't know, but it'll be a catch-all, maybe."

Maybe, they weren't sure if it was even necessary.

-Mm-hmm.

-In 1972, he didn't realize it was gonna open the floodgates for women's sports, but it changed the whole world.

And i-it's the one place, the one law that really has been -- made us equal.

-It was an amazing thing for women... -Yes.

-Not only in sports, but for women empowerment for -- to open more opportunities and possibilities.

-Yes.

-As you said, we still have a lot to work on.

-You know, I remember when you and I were talking -- what was the question I asked, do you remember what I asked you, like... -Yes.

-I asked, did you get any money for winning the World Championships?

And the answer was... -[Both] No.

-And I'm, like, crazed now, that's on my brain 24/7.

Because you have to have money in the game.

If you're playing flag football for a year, it means you gave up a year of university, it means you gave up a year of training in a company.

So that is what you want to do.

Th-This is what you want.

-Mm-hmm.

-And you gotta do it while you're young, too, because you know when it's done for you, you want it for other girls an-and boys as well, right?

-Mm-hmm.

-All genders, mm-hmm.

-Can you tell me about the Original 9?

-The Original 9!

I love the Original 9.

We've been celebrating all over the world, it's been great.

We're all still alive, which is the most important thing.

But the Original 9 is the birth of women's professional tennis.

In 1970, nine of us realized we had to form our own professional tour if we were ever going to step out of the shadow of men's professional tennis.

There, we had been considered the sideshow, and men's tennis was the main event.

A point that was driven home by tennis promoter Jack Kramer, whose famous Pacific Southwest tournament boldly offered the male players eight times more than the women players.

Gladys Heldman, the publisher of "World Tennis Magazine," led us to start our own tour, and even secured a title sponsor.

All nine of us agreed to a $1 contract to play in the Virginia Slims of Houston tournament.

The USTA, the governing body of tennis in the United States, was furious, and threatened to banish us from all future tournaments.

We were willing to risk our entire careers for the hope of equality, not only financially, but also in terms of more tournaments, more marketing, and more resources devoted to women's tennis.

We were committed, and we were together in the fight.

And these are the three things we came up with that we were willing to lose our careers forever: That any girl born in this world, if she were good enough, would have a place to compete.

Number two, she would be appreciated for her accomplishments, not only her looks.

And number three, to make a living playing the sport we absolutely had a passion to play.

So those were the three things we were willing to do.

So we're willing to give everything up.

And so we had this one tournament, but I kept saying, this is great, but what are we gonna do after the tournament?

So that's when we started.

It took about two or three months, we all asked people to promote tournaments.

"Would you please do it?

We got a series of tournaments."

They said yes, Virginia Slims came in as the sponsor.

We had our first tour in 1971.

Larry and I were part owners of the first two tournaments in San Francisco and in Long Beach.

I would even take the soap and the towels to the locker room.

I would do all kinds of stuff to set up, put the lines down, I mean, we'd do whatever it took.

Then in 1972, I won the U.S. Open for the third time.

And when I realized my earnings were $10,000 and the winner of the men's tournament, Ilie Nastase, won $25,000, I said to myself, this has got to change.

We worked tirelessly to recruit more players to join our cause to band together for equal pay.

And ultimately, the Women's Tennis Association was born, and I became its first president.

The women of tennis were now organized, and ready to fight together.

We made it clear to the U.S. Open that women would not be participating the following year if the pay was not equal to the men.

Bristol Myers stepped up to sponsor the pay gap.

Billy Talbert, the director of the U.S. Open, made the decision to offer the same prize money to the women as the men.

To this day, we don't know if he made that decision himself, or ran it by the board.

We've never been able to find any proof that the entire USTA board voted on this decision.

But starting the following year, the U.S. Open led the world in providing equal prize money to women.

Equal pay may seem like an obvious concept, but the reality is quite different for women in America.

White women make $0.83 to the dollar of their male colleagues, and women of color make even less, at roughly $0.60 on the dollar.

The pay gap is real, and very problematic even today.

When I first met Julie Foudy, she and the world championship gold medal-winning U.S. soccer team were in the fight of their careers to earn the respect and equality that had been eluding them in the 1990s.

They were paid significantly less than their male counterparts who had never won an Olympics or a World Cup championship.

-We were trying to establish the team in the '90s as kind of the first group coming through, and we started having more success, we won that first World Cup, we won the Olympics.

You know, we're gonna be hosting the first World Cup in the United States.

And what we quickly realized is nothing was changing in terms of the support for us.

Like, we were literally still making $10 a day.

That was our per diem.

-Oh, my... -$10 a day.

-$10 a day?

-Yes, with really no external income outside of that, we kept nudging like, hey, yo, we can't survive on this.

We're no longer in college, like, we need to either go work, which means stop playing, or you need to start paying us more.

So we're getting more frustrated and more frustrated each year.

-[Billie] The United States hosted its first Women's World Cup in 1999.

It was the summer that changed everything for soccer in America.

The three-week-long tournament packed stadiums with newly passionate soccer fans and captivated the nation with record television ratings.

[ Soft music ] -[Julie] I think the thing that made '99 so remarkable is that no one expected packed stadiums, 40 million people watching on TV.

They just didn't expect that, because everyone said, do it in small stadiums... -Mm-hmm.

-Make sure -- maybe you just want to do it on the East Coast, you know, make it regional.

But it was a World Cup, and a World Cup is like an Olympics.

It's like, no... -Yeah.

-Why would we go small?

Let's go big.

Let's do big stadiums, national footprint.

And everyone thought we were crazy, and we ended up crushing it.

[ Upbeat music ] The final of the 1999 Women's World Cup ends in penalties, of course.

Brandi Chastain, she's the fifth kicker.

If she makes it, the United States wins.

And she doesn't just make it, make it, she side nets it.

Beautiful kick... [ Crowd cheering ] And then, she rips off her jersey.

Flexes, sports bra, front page of every magazine across the nation.

You may remember the iconic photo.

And we won the World Cup at home in front of a lot of people watching on TV and a packed Rose Bowl stadium, and it was really cool.

And that's when soccer just... -That's insane.

-It was really the first time that people go, "Oh, this is the potential for women's sports."

There was that glimpse in '99 where we were like, oh, my gosh, this is the potential... -It had the potential, yeah.

-This is what it should be.

-[Billie] The team won that World Cup in epic fashion.

The iconic photo of Brandi Chastain did spark some controversy.

Although men have been ripping off their shirts in celebration of wins for decades, some were in an uproar over Chastain's actions, revealing that double standards for men and women were alive and well.

But despite that criticism, the World Cup win was definitive proof that women's soccer was a successful commercial enterprise.

It was the leverage this team had been waiting for.

-So at about this time, I meet the Billie Jean King.

Super lucky, I get invited by the Women's Sports Foundation to this like, literally roundtable of ten awesome, badass women, Billie Jean being one of them, sitting around the table.

So, Billie Jean King is telling her story about how women's tennis in the '70s had to break away from men's tennis because she felt that they weren't ever going to grow and blossom because they just couldn't separate from men.

They weren't getting the support.

They weren't getting the funding.

They weren't getting the attention.

And so after she tells this whole story, I go, "That's us, help us!"

[ Laughter ] "That's our story!"

And she turns to me and she goes, "Foudy, what are you doing about it?"

I was like, "I don't know.

I mean, we're trying.

We're asking for help, we've gone to the federation.

We've complained"... "Foudy, no, you, you get the players.

What are you as players doing?

Go home, get the players.

When you meet next time, you get them on the same page.

You've got the power.

You, the players.

You need to be fighting for better.

You, you, the players."

And I was like, "You're damn right we do.

Okay!"

I was like, yeah, okay, roll my sleeves up.

Let's go.

So literally from that meeting, Suni, we are flying.

I'm flying in to meet the national team, and my mind is going a million miles an hour.

It was this epiphany, and I'm like, oh!

Oh, we're not signing this contract.

So I get in with the players, and they literally are like, let's sign this contract.

And I get the players together.

I was like, "Oh, no.

Billie Jean King just told me" -- And by then, you know, we had been fighting for enough that we were fed up.

And so, of course, it was easy.

The players were like, "Yeah, why didn't we think of that?

I -- Yeah, you're right.

She's right.

No, we're not signing this contract."

So it was the start of us saying to U.S. Soccer, uh-uh, that's not good enough.

And the crazy, cool thing is, is that Billie didn't just say to me that first day, "Hey, Julie, it's really hard, but you have the power."

She said to me that first day, "Not only do you have the power, I'm going to be right by your side.

I'm gonna tell you what we learned, how we did it, what we did, and I'm going to pass this on to you."

-So did anything change after you, like, had that... -Yeah, a lot changed.

We were like, oh, we really have the power now.

We have leverage.

We have numbers, we have data that backs up our argument that people care about this team, people care about this sport.

People care about women's sports in general.

So let's start acting on a daily basis like you care, as well.

-Right.

-And like, show us that you care with a contract, and money, and payment and support, most importantly for the program.

And back then, it was for equitable pay.

We didn't think equal pay back then, right?

That's too big.

No, let's just go for better treatment, more marketing, better support, because they would say, "You just wanna line your pockets."

No, we wanna make the game better, we wanna grow the game.

And Billie was teaching us all this as we were going along.

-By sticking together, the women's soccer team greatly improved their financial compensation and their working conditions.

This history is so important to revisit and to share between the generations, because every single athlete has had these private struggles that have taught them major lessons.

-So for women's half-pipe snowboarding, the first Olympics was in 1998, and so I was prepped.

It was something that was... possible for me.

I got to watch all of my idols prep for the Olympics, I was there.

-I didn't even know who my idols were.

Isn't that crazy?

-That's what I mean.

Like, I had so many people I could look up to, and you, you were the person you had to look up to, you know?

-I-It's crazy.

-I was fortunate enough to witness so many incredible female athletes, and I think the only thing that was different for me was that none of them really looked like me, you know?

There weren't many Asian-American women in sports, and so I felt a little bit of isolation in that regard, because there were things that I was struggling with that no one else seemed to be struggling with, um, growing up as a young Korean-American girl.

But seeing the impact that I've been able to make on so many young, young girls, especially young Asian-American girls, has been incredible.

And I'm -- I'm grateful to be in this position.

But I definitely did struggle because, one, snowboarding is a very male-dominated sport.

When I was 13, that's when I first downloaded Instagram, and it was cool because I was like, whoa, I got, you know, 200 likes on this photo.

200 people think I'm cool!

But also, it opened this door for people to be mean.

-Mm-hmm.

-Racist comments, like, I won my first X Games medal at 13, and I went to bed crying myself to sleep that night.

And that was very painful.

And I went through it alone.

I got really upset, you know?

I became angry.

I hated the world, I hated myself.

I hated... you know, that I was Asian.

Like, it was terrible, you know?

Nobody knew, because, again, when I'm outside, smiles on, happy me, 'cause that's my image, that's what people see me as is this happy, young, bubbly girl who kills it on a snowboard.

So if I wasn't any of those things, then I thought nobody would like me, or, like, I wasn't lovable, because everyone was saying the most terrible things to me online, and I let it affect me.

Nobody really prepped me for that.

And that wasn't something that I expected at all.

-After winning the gold in 2018, Chloe Kim struggled with the newfound fame and even threw her first gold medal in the trash.

She worked through the intense period and came out the other side stronger and more focused on her goals.

The path to becoming a champion athlete is riddled with unexpected complications and obstacles.

And every athlete I know has these personal stories.

[ Intense music ] -I wanna hear more about the lead-up to the Olympics.

And, yeah, 'cause I-- obviously, that's a hard time in itself with COVID and everything happening but... -Well, it was really difficult because, in 2019, right before the championship, my dad had an accident which caused him to be paralyzed from the waist down.

Basically got his whole life taken away from him, and it was very difficult.

The two days that I was trying to prepare for the championship, I spent in the hospital with my dad.

And he like could barely talk at the time, but when he did, he was like, "No, you have to go."

And I was like, Dad, I'm not going to the championship when you are in critical condition.

And he was like, "Tell Jess to come here" -- Jess is my coach -- and so my coach came to the hospital, and he was telling my coach that I had to go to the meet and I had to compete.

Like, I had no other choice.

And I didn't tell anybody that that happened to my dad because I didn't want any attention.

And I just didn't feel like people should know.

But I ended up competing, and I actually placed second for my first senior competition, which is a really big deal.

But after all of that was COVID.

I wasn't able to train for a while because, obviously, like, everything was shut down.

So I was out of the gym for like a couple months, and I was really like, do I even want this anymore?

Like, there were times where I was like, I just don't think that the Olympics is gonna happen.

Like, it got postponed... -Yeah, it was so crazy, that time... -It was, yeah, insane.

-That was a little fork in the road where you could've easily gotten off.

-No, yeah, because like, once I started training in the gym, too, like, the first day back, I broke my foot.

Since I was so weak already, like, it just progressively got worse, and went into the Olympics -- I mean, I competed at the Olympics with a fractured shin.

-What?

-Not a lot of people know that.

[ Laughing ] I just -- -How did you do that?

-I mean, well, the adrenaline definitely helped.

I'm like, okay, a fractured shin, or the Olympics, like, Olympics, of course.

-Oh, my word.

Wow.

-Yeah, crazy ride.

-[Diana] When I started, I started playing at a club.

We had this amazing stadium, the football field, you know, with lights on.

Amazing.

That wasn't where I started to play flag.

I started at a dust field right in the back, full of rocks, literally, and trash.

Because they told us that we were not allowed to stand on the field because it was for the boys.

Every time before a practice, my coach, he asked us to start like, um, cleaning t-- the field from rocks so I could bring my bag, my trash bag, to every practice.

-It's terrible.

So you went from this dust field, rocks, trash bags, all this, and then how old were you when you played on a men's team... -14.

-14.

-Yes, so... -But the boys let you or the coach let you?

-At that moment in time, there was a rule in the league... -Ah, there was a rule.

-That if they had a girl on the team, they were allowed to have one more boy.

-Oh, good, alright -- -So it is like, mmm... -So they're not losing out, basically?

-Yes.

It was hard at the beginning because I remember boys, and even the coaches, didn't get to trust a lot in me because, as you said, it was not their fault.

I understood it like, later on.

-It's culture.

-Because -- Yes, because they were used to that kind of mind-set.

-Yes.

-And the mind-set of, "Okay, the girls, she's the weak one of the team.

Okay, we're gonna protect her, okay..." -So how did you -- did you change their minds?

-Yes.

-And how did you do that?

-It was all about like, my -- my work... -It was your skill, right?

-My passion, my skills.

They saw, and they realized that I was not competing against them, I was competing with them... -Right, you're on their team, to win, right?!

-We have the same passion, we have the same vision.

We have more things that connect us than what we would've thought.

-[Billie] When Jackie Joyner-Kersee accepted her invitation to UCLA, she achieved her dream of following in the footsteps of Evelyn Ashford, Annie Meyers, and Anita Ortega.

There, she astounded people by playing on two NCAA teams -- basketball and track & field.

Jackie's specialty in track was the heptathlon, which is a grueling contest comprised of seven events, which include the shot put, long jump, 60-meter run, 1,000-meter run, 100-meter hurdles, high jump, and javelin throw.

In 1984, Jackie participated in her first Olympics, and was considered the favorite to win, until she suffered an injury.

-It was very challenging because I was dealing with patellar tendonitis in my left knee, and it played on me mentally.

So I doubted my coaches, I doubted myself.

And when I went into the Games, my first Olympic Games, even though they were saying that I was okay, I didn't believe I was okay.

And I performed like that.

-[Billie] Even with a debilitating injury, Jackie still competed in her Olympic events and took home the silver medal.

But the experience deeply shook her confidence and plagued her for years.

-I said, when I left Los Angeles in 1984, my first Olympic Games, I said I wanted to be the toughest athlete out there mentally -- -Mm-hmm.

-Because physically, I had the ability.

But for me, I never forget that before I became that, I went through this struggle before I became, you know, the best in the world in the heptathlon.

-That's such a cool thing to say.

-I know.

[ Laughter ] -[Billie] By the time the 1988 Olympics rolled around, Jackie Joyner-Kersee was stronger physically and mentally than she'd ever been.

And she dominated the events, setting a heptathlon world record that has not been broken in more than 35 years.

-Did I think it would still last this long?

No.

I'm happy for it, but that's just a part of what I did, but not to the point where it leads my life or run my life.

-Like, it doesn't define you?

-No, right, exactly, you know?

So it's like -- And then when people tell me 35 years, you know, I'm like, wow, that means I'm old, you know?

[ Laughter ] You know, because most people don't see our struggles, you know?

-Yeah.

-They just see the successes.

But tell me about the 2018, the U.S. Open.

-It was a lot of mixed, mixed emotions, yeah.

-I remember sitting in my bedroom, oh, gosh, just to see you and Serena battle it out, and I just felt for both of you at that moment.

Oh, you brought me to tears, because you were so grateful, you know?

And I know that she was like a role model and, you know, and -- and so, could you just share a little bit of that moment?

-It felt like a dream to me to be playing against her because I did, like, a report on her, maybe fourth grade or something, and I was just like, if I ever managed to get to the finals of a Slam, I would love to play Serena.

Um, and then it actually happened.

So it was definitely a really surreal feeling.

[ Tense music ] [ Crowd cheering ] I always thought about what would happen if I won a Slam, but just everything that occurred was outside of my imagination.

I wasn't really prepared for it.

There was a lot of people saying that I didn't, like, deserve to win, or that win didn't count, but it also really brought my ambitions very high.

Like, that just motivated me a lot to win, like, the Australian Open right after that.

So, but, yeah, I just remember feeling in that moment very happy to have won.

But also I felt very sad because I knew how much it meant to her.

-[Billie] Naomi's 2018 U.S. Open win against her childhood hero, Serena Williams, was an historic night in tennis, and Naomi's first Grand Slam win.

At the awards ceremony, the stadium erupted in boos.

It was an emotional, intense moment.

As Naomi hid behind her visor, Serena stepped in closer and placed her arm around Naomi's shoulder in a sign of solidarity.

It was one of the most powerful illustrations of support that I've ever seen in our sport.

-In your space, in tennis, how were you able to really adapt and adjust?

-I think, for me, it's just more about being grateful.

I have to always pat myself on the back, like, even if I feel like other people don't.

What's most important is how I feel on the inside.

-When I was competing, if I had talked about my mental health, I was considered weak.

-Mm-hmm.

-But for you to open that door for so many people that didn't even know they can have that conversation... -[Billie] In 2021, Naomi caused quite a stir when she decided not to interact with the media, and decided to focus on her mental health instead.

After skipping the first press conference following her opening-round win, organizers fined her and threatened to suspend her from the tournament and all other grand slams that year.

Naomi shocked the world and pulled out altogether, and revealed that she had been struggling with depression and anxiety for years, becoming one of the first international sports stars to raise awareness and talk about her mental health struggles publicly.

-In the beginning, I remember feeling a bit ashamed about it because there is always that stigma of, like, you are weak if you talk about it, and you're giving your opponents like a... like, an edge or something?

Um, but then I think I realized, and just interacting with other athletes, and them saying that me talking about it helped them out a lot, it's when I realized, like, I'm not the only one that feels this way.

-Right.

-And it's better for everyone to just talk about it 'cause then it'll become more, I don't want to say normal, but less stigmatized.

-I don't know if you ever lived through, you know, the idea of this impostor syndrome where you're always like, I'm not good enough... -Wow, I definitely had that.

-A lot of women go through that.

I mean, I had that especially in my early days with the national team... -Yeah.

-Of, why am I here?

[ Whispering ] Like, does anyone know I shouldn't be here?

I think they made a mistake.

[ Normal ] So how did you get through that?

-Well, it was really difficult because I had a hard time talking about it.

I think I was more, like, embarrassed than anything because I'm like, I don't think I should have won the Olympics.

-[Billie] In 2020, Suni Lee found herself in a situation no one could have predicted.

One day before the all-around gymnastic Olympic event, gold medal favorite Simone Biles withdrew.

Biles experienced a dangerous phenomena known as "the twisties."

It's when a gymnast's mind and body are out of sync and the athlete cannot accurately assess where to land.

Simone admitted that she needed a mental health break, and months later, when testifying in front of the U.S. Senate, on the FBI's mishandling of the USA gymnastics' sexual abuse investigation, Biles bravely admitted that her mental health issues in Tokyo were directly tied to the longtime abuse she suffered at the hands of the team doctor, Larry Nasser.

-To be clear, I blame Larry Nasser.

And I also blame... an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse.

-[Billie] But in Tokyo, with only 24 hours before the event, Suni Lee was thrust into the spotlight and into a chance to win the gold.

-When Simone is going through all of that.

-Yes.

-A-And obviously, you didn't know what your role was gonna be coming into this Olympics... -No, I mean, going into the Olympics, like, me and my coach, we were set on like, okay, we're just gonna go, compete for second, win a team medal, and you're going to win a bars medal.

And I was like, okay, like, I'm competing for second.

I've been competing for second my whole career -- or not my whole career, but since Simone's... -Is that because you think Simone's gonna get first?

-Yeah, we just know, it's like, Simone's always gonna be first, my coach is like, "You're never gonna beat her."

And I was like, "Yeah, I know, so we're competing for second."

-Okay.

-And so once that happened with her, like, it was like, what do we do now?

And, like, especially with the team, we were all just sitting there panicking.

Like, we were crying on the floor, and we were like, we don't even know, like, what to do.

But then she, like, came over and talked to us.

And Simone has always inspired me, so obviously, I'm gonna listen to her.

Like, she's the GOAT, like, a legend, and so whenever she says anything to me, I'm like, yep, okay.

Take it from Simone like, she -- -What'd she say?

-She was just like, go out there, like -- She's, first of all, she was like, "I'm sorry that I can't compete."

And she was like, "You guys just got to go out there.

I'll be your biggest cheerleader."

And we all just kind of huddled up, and we were just like, we have to do this for Simone.

We have to do this for Team USA, and we have to do this for ourselves.

-[Billie] Suni Lee went on to win the gold medal in the all-around event at the Olympics.

But the experience played on her insecurities.

-First Olympics... -And like, especially when it didn't go, like, the way that you thought that your Olympics was gonna go, like, I just envisioned it, like, completely different.

That whole year, I was like... -Really?

-I don't think I should've won.

Like, if Simone was there, I definitely wouldn't have won.

I was constantly telling myself, like, I'm not good enough.

I shouldn't have won the Olympics.

Like, I was really mean to myself.

-Oh, my word, wow.

-But then it was, like, at the end of the day, like, it's a competition, and whoever shows up, shows up, and whoever doesn't, doesn't.

And that's what I had to learn.

And so, it was really difficult.

-It's hard, and that's very normal.

-How did you get through it?

Like, how did you, like -- like, during, like, the World Cups and stuff like that, like, what was, like, your mental, like, going into it?

-I had this amazing woman who worked on the national team, Dr. Colleen Hacker, she was like a mental skills expert on the team.

She would always have these fantastic exercises we could do for our mental health.

And one time I came to her and I said, "I -- I'm just really struggling."

And then I go into this downward spiral, and these butterflies.

And Dr. Hacker said to me, "No, never wish the butterflies to go away."

And I said, "Oh, no, I want the butterflies to go away because when the butterflies come, like, I know it's bad."

And she's like, "No.

Do you get butterflies doing the dishes?"

I'm like, "No."

"Do you get butterflies vacuuming?"

I'm like, "Nope."

She goes, "Exactly!

The butterflies mean that you care."

-Yes.

-"So you always want the butterflies, now just teach them to fly in formation."

-Mm-hmm.

-And I was like, oh, okay, I get it.

So how do I do that?

So she said, you know, "You wear a hairband?"

And I said, "Yes."

And she goes, "Okay, anytime you start to get those negative thoughts in your brain of, like, I don't belong here, I stink, I'm terrible," she's like, "you have a physical reminder."

So she goes, "Snap that hairband on your wrist to remind you to snap out of it and replace it with a positive."

And I was like, I can do that.

And the crazy thing, so that physical reminder means I make a mental change, and it actually worked.

So I literally would be on the field in the middle of a game, and I'd be like, snapping.

-I ne-- I need to do that.

-Yeah, or it was like, roll up your sleeves, fix your ponytail, whatever -- pull your socks up, like, whatever your physical reminder is to go, no, I'm good, actually, I'm gonna crush it, and you train your brain.

And the -- Honestly, it works.

-Today, athletes have really normalized talking about mental health, which is going to make the sports community and society stronger.

I know it takes a few people to inspire a new way of thinking, but it takes patience, commitment, and the cooperation of millions to enforce and enact any kind of real change.

-Title IX.

It was an amazing thing for women, not only in sports, but for women empowerment to open more opportunities and possibilities.

-Yes, what it's really about, it's an educational amendment.

It was about classroom quotas.

For instance, if you wanted to go to Harvard and get a medical degree, they only allowed 5% of the classroom to be women.

-Mm-hmm.

-So what happened in '72 is the federal government said, "We're gonna send you monies, all of you get monies, all the schools, but for the first time, you're gonna have to spend it equally on boys and girls.

Not just boys."

Even today, boys in high school... -Have more opportunities.

-...have more opportunities than we do, and that's not right either.

-Mm-hmm.

-It has been a slow, arduous... you gotta be in it for the long game.

If you care about change, you gotta be in it for the long haul.

So it's better, but we still have a long way to go.

Title IX revolutionized opportunities for women and girls, but over 50 years later, there are still issues with implementation and enforcement.

Funding for women's sports is still nowhere equal to men's, and the number of college women athletes is still not proportional to the ratio of enrolled women in college.

Continuing the conversation between generations is key to Title IX's continued impact for generations to come.

-I'm curious, athletes your age, what is their impression of Title IX, and how aware are they even of what Title IX is?

-I think we're aware that it's, like, obviously about eq-- creating equality for women.

Not a lot of people talk about it as much as we want them to.

-Yeah, they don't fully understand it.

-Yes.

-Well, and that's the thing.

I don't blame young girls or young boys because we're not taught it in school.

It should be part of our standard curriculum, I think, it's one of the most profound civil rights laws in this country.

I didn't learn about it until I met Billie Jean King and the Women's Sports Foundation.

-Speaking of Title IX, like, I heard that you were at Stanford and they didn't offer scholarships.

Like, were you on scholarship?

-You know, I started on the national team really young, 16 years old, so I was already on the national team in high school.

So you would think, like, okay, by today's standards, if you're a national teamer... -Scholarship, ready.

-...you would have -- yeah, you would have probably 300 universities.

-Yeah.

-I only had, like, two or three options for scholarships.

-Wow.

-But Stanford, I had always wanted to go to, but at the time, they didn't have any scholarships yet.

But as a kid, I had loved the academics of Stanford combined with the athletics, and had always wanted to go there.

And so the coach said, you know, "We don't have any scholarships yet, but by your sophomore year, I think we'll have a scholarship."

And so I turned down a full ride to University of North Carolina and a couple of other universities, and not only did the scholarship not happen my sophomore year, it didn't happen my junior year either.

So it wasn't until my senior year, Title IX passes in 1972, I got the first women's soccer scholarship at Stanford in 1992.

-Oh, my gosh.

-Yeah.

-That's insane.

-My senior year.

-No, you know, it's crazy to think about it like, from your perspective, because it's like, I was offered a scholarship in eighth grade.

-See, eighth grade!

-Yeah.

In eighth grade was when I committed to Auburn.

You committed to Auburn in... -Yes.

-See, that in itself, too, is the power of Title IX.

-You know, for me to be here with you, and you weren't even born when I was doing what I was trying to do, and then I look at Title IX and the difference it made in my life.

The law was passed when I was ten years of age, and to be -- we called it a "Title IX baby."

And I wanted to go to UCLA because I thought it was a great school for girls, knowing that my parents couldn't afford to send me out to California.

So what do you think of when Title IX is mentioned?

-I feel like I didn't know about it at first, which was shocking to me, because I realized how much of an effect it has on so many people's lives and of course, the sporting world.

-And what impact did it have on your life?

-For me, I realize where I am right now, um, is because of a lot of other women that came before me, and they fought the fight that I didn't have to.

So for me, I feel like I will also have to fight a lot of fights for the kids and the women after me.

And to me, that's what Title IX stands for.

It's women that I didn't know, but they fought the fight for me, and we'll just keep continuing to do the same thing.

-I didn't know that there was Title IX when I was in college at Old Dominion.

I thought everybody got scholarships.

At what point did you realize you were doing something special, but it might be connected to Title IX?

-I never lived in the world without Title IX.

We have been discriminated against for so long, and for me to not know for such a long period of time was honestly heartbreaking.

I don't think we talk about it enough.

-Like, you knew something was wrong.

I knew something was wrong when I found out my teammates had slivers of scholarships, but all the guys on the men's team had full scholarships.

-Yeah.

-And that's when I started hearing that word, Title IX, and what it was.

-Mm-hmm.

-And here we are, you know, so many decades apart, you and I, squarely, we're in the foxhole together... -Yeah.

-For Title IX, and to continuing to change the lives of young people, but educate.

-By 1972, the women's rights movement was making significant progress, including Roe v. Wade and Title IX's access to education equality.

But there was still a prominent cultural attitude that men were better than women.

Then the American tennis legend Bobby Riggs called me.

[ Film reel whirring ] -Billie, you mean to say you think I put women down?

Is that what you're saying that I'm doing all the time?

-Yes, I do, I don't think you give us credit for having any brains at all.

-[Billie] I agreed to play Bobby Riggs in a made-for-primetime television spectacle with the largest in-person audience tennis had ever seen, plus 90 million people watching from home.

Make no mistake, this match was a public challenge to the advancement of the feminist movement by a man who publicly bragged that women belonged in the bedroom and the kitchen.

You know, that's fine, because if that's where you're at, then that's okay... -Well, I get along very well with a lot of girls... -Bobby had been following me around for two years, I kept saying no, then he called Chris Evert, Nancy Richey, everybody.

"Would you play me?

Would you play me?

We'll make lots of money."

And everybody said, no, but Margaret said yes.

Margaret Court, the Australian tennis player, was one of the best tennis players of all time.

She accepted Bobby's offer first... but the match did not go well for her.

And I had told Larry, if Margaret should lose, I have to play.

Well, she lost, badly.

This is what it's really all about, because Bobby challenged me in the first place, and I didn't wanna start an issue.

But now that Margaret went ahead and opened the door, I can beat Bobby.

-What makes you think that I won't be able to psych you out of the match just like I did Margaret?

Now, what makes you think that?

-I'm not Margaret Court, I love pressure.

You can try to psych me all you want.

You know, he's my dad's age.

I kept telling, you guys, this is no athletic feat for me.

It means nothing from an athletic point of view, but from a psychological... -That's it.

-And changing culture.

-Mm-hmm.

-I mean, women could not even get a credit card on our own when I played him... -Mm-hmm.

-Without having a guy sign.

I mean, it's just these little, like, stupid things.

And then the chaos started.

-[Announcer] A wild scene almost reminiscent of college football.

And it's hard to believe, but probably more than 30,000 people are in this arena for an all-time record tennis audience anywhere in the world.

-Howard Cosell was horrible to me.

He talked about my looks only.

-[Howard] Billie Jean King, a very attractive young lady... -[ Groans ] -And sometimes, you get the feeling that, if she ever let her hair grow down to her shoulders, took her glasses off, you'd have somebody vying for a Hollywood screen test.

-[ Sighing ] -There she is... -[Billie] Only looks, he talked about.

Bobby comes out, he talks about, "Oh, Hall of Famer," you know, about his accomplishments.

-[Howard] There was, would you believe, a problem about one of our announcers to be, Jack Kramer, the famed tennis promoter, the famed tennis player of the past.

Jack was to have been part of our team, but it seems that Billie Jean King didn't want him to be part of our announcing team.

-Correct.

ABC hired former tennis promoter Jack Kramer to announce the match with Howard Cosell.

You might remember Jack Kramer from the Pacific Southwest Tournament, where he offered the male players eight times the pay that he offered the women.

Jack's tournament offer was the final catalyst for the Original 9 joining forces.

So Jack and I, we had real history.

I knew audiences deserved to see this match through the commentating of an expert who believed in what we women could do.

And I knew it was the right time for me to use the leverage I had earned as the number-one player in the world.

So I told ABC that Jack Kramer was a dealbreaker.

ABC agreed, but actually gave Jack Kramer airtime to address his being replaced.

-But apparently Billie Jean wa s very serious, and she feels that I'm completely opposed to what she's trying to do in tennis.

-Correct.

-And I have to say that Billie Jean's right, to ABC's credit, they said, "You call the shots, Jack, we'll go along with you" but I'm withdrawing voluntarily, and I'm wishing 100% good luck to my pal Bobby Riggs.

-When I look back at this, I have to laugh.

This commentating is the best historical record of what the male establishment thought about women.

-Camera, and this is our female expert tonight.

Recognize her?

Little Rosie Casals.

-Ugh, God almighty.

Rosie Casals was one of the top players of her generation, and my doubles tennis partner.

I just wanna point out that this is truly what it was like for women in 1973.

Look how Howard Cosell drapes his arm around Rosie's neck, how he refers to her as "little Rosie Casals."

Can you imagine how many people saw this behavior from the control room and laughed it off and said nothing?

This is just business as usual.

I am so glad I didn't see this commentating at the time.

On that day, all I was focused on was my match and my strategy to win.

When I was playing, everybody thought I'd just serve and volley, which is my game.

Just go forward, forward, forward, forward.

And as I got to the baseline, which is right before you go up to the umpire's chair, I switched.

I could just feel it, Something very intuitive came to me that I was not gonna do that, I was gonna hit the ball as softly as I could.

I was gonna stay back most of the time, drop shot a lot, and also make him run, run, run.

He is really tired.

My job is to get the ball in play to give him a chance to miss.

I made him just run and run.

-[Rosie] I knew this would come to this.

And I knew Bobby would have to, uh, come down to something like injuries... -[Howard] Well, let me say this about Bobby Riggs, Rosie, you've gotten in all your licks tonight at the guy... -So I go like this on the shot, I go hit up.

I mean, he should just be able to put it away on an easy volley, he hit it right in the net.

He was so tired, he couldn't get his arm up.

-[Howard] It is over.

Let's watch Bobby Riggs.

Three straight... -When he jumped over the net, he said, "I underestimated you."

I didn't underestimate him.

He was one of my heroes.

He was a Hall of Famer, I looked at tapes.

I understood him a lot better than he understood me.

And I think that helped me win the match, too.

[ Triumphant music ] I bet a lot of male chauvinists aren't really proud of Bobby Riggs representing them, but I'm sure I've only heard from the ones that aren't proud of him.

The ones who are proud of him, I'm sure would go talk to him instead of talk to me.

For the women, it gave more self-confidence.

You know, I went and met some -- with some women.

They said, "We've been wanting to ask for a raise for ten years and we never had the guts."

I said, "Well, what happened?"

They go, "We asked."

I said, "No, more importantly, did you get the raise?"

And they said, "Yes!"

And so they were so happy.

The men come up to me, and they're crying, usually.

They're actually crying, tears in their eyes.

And they said, "I never thought about my wife, my daughters, my nieces, I never really thought about it."

Even when I met President Obama in the Oval Office, one of the first things he says to me, "I saw that match when I was 12 years old.

It changed how I thought.

And now I have two daughters, so I know it helped me raise my two daughters to be strong."

And I'm thinking, whoa.

-Yes, the impact -- -He was 12.

You don't know, right?

-Yes.

-[Woman] Through her example and advocacy, Billie Jean Moffitt King has advanced the struggle for greater gender equality around the world.

Her athletic acumen is matched only by her unwavering defense of equal rights.

With Billie Jean King pushing us, the road ahead will be smoother for women, the future will be brighter for LGBT Americans, and our nation's commitment to equality will be stronger for all.

[ Applause ] [ Soft music ] -It has been a long, long journey, and as you said, like, a lot of things have changed, um, during the past years.

Like a lot of things, not only for women, but only in terms of inclusion, like... -Everybody's aware of it now.

-How that journey was for you?

-What, to be outed?

I was trying to figure out my sexuality during the tour in the '70s when Larry and I were married and going through hell.

And then the people on the tour told me if I talk about anything, what I'm feeling, that there'd be no tour.

So that was a real easy decision.

Okay, I won't, then.

But I was going to retire and I was finally gonna make some money, and I got outed.

So I lost all my endorsements in 24 hours, except one.

They lowered it, which was even worse.

And then I was called "slut."

I mean, I was called -- you cannot imagine what I was called.

And I'm so happy today that doesn't happen.

You know, people say, "Oh, Billie, we came out and I did this," and they're so happy.

And I'm like, yes!

But then it makes me think, sometimes, I go back and how sad I was and how tough it was... and that made me even more sensitive than ever to others.

-Mm-hmm.

-And that I just think everybody belongs.

I don't care if they're gay, I don't care if they're trans, I don't care, as long as they're okay, you know?

But they're human beings first, that's what I care about.

It goes back to my 12-year-old epiphany about inclusion, if you think about what I thought about then, that I think everybody belongs, everybody is important.

-Mm-hmm.

-Every human being is absolutely important.

-Yes, I feel that, as society, we're going to make a big change when you got to understand that what matters is not where you're from, or who you are... -No, it's not.

-Or if you're a man, woman.

If you -- Nothing matters.

-It doesn't.

-The only thing that matters is what you have to bring to life.

-Inclusion has mattered to me since I was a child.

We can never understand inclusion until we have been excluded.

Prioritizing inclusion is about wanting more for those who are often left behind or forgotten.

We cannot talk about inclusion without celebrating Para athletes and the Paralympics.

Since the first Paralympics was held in 1960, the Games have uniquely created a space for athletes of all abilities to participate and compete in the thrill of sports.

As pioneers for inclusion, Para athletes and the Paralympics challenge stereotypes and break down discrimination towards people with disabilities.

Vision, courage, and imagination.

That is what it takes to create a world that includes and welcomes all people in all spaces.

That includes everyone, all people.

Women who have wanted to become mothers also have had to push to create a world where they can pursue their dreams, both professionally and personally.

[ Soft music ] -So how did you like, balance, like, motherhood with your career?

-Mmm... How many days do we have for this one?

-[ Laughs ] -Well, one, I didn't have kids while I was playing, although, the really cool thing was I was surrounded by a lot of teammates who did.

-Mm-hmm.

-And so it was fantastic to see the evolution of people thinking as athletes.

You know, before we used to think as female athletes, oh, we can't have kids and compete, you know?

I gotta retire, I gotta go and then be a mom.

And, you know, going back to Joy Fawcett, who was a teammate of mine, she was the first one to have kids on the national team, and she was like, "Why not?

I'm going to have kids."

And she literally would pop out a kid, and then be back practicing like a month later.

-Oh, my God.

-I was like, what?

-And would their kids come, like... -Yeah, kids on the road.

And it was so fun because it was perspective, you know?

They didn't care if we'd won or lost, they just wanted to be fed or loved or hugged.

And so they're playing, so we'd be, you know, walking off the field and they'd be there hugging you, and it was like, aww!

So it truly was like a big family when we would travel.

So when Joy had kids, then she gave the rest of the national team, really, the courage to go, "Oh, I can do this."

And now, of course, we see all these fantastic examples of women having kids and competing, and not just in sports, but the idea of you're going to be a mom, and you're going to stay home, and you're gonna take care of the house.

And we're seeing the evolution in society as a whole about women's roles and sharing that equally with their partner.

-Yeah.

-And also, you're seeing it in women's sports, which is fantastic to see.

-Yeah, that's incredible.

-You're going to be a mother soon... [ Both laughing ] You know?

So how do you feel about this transition that you're in?

-It's definitely very interesting.

I would feel like, for me, I started to think certain things that I cared a lot about before, they don't matter as much.

-Mmm.

-And not to say, like, they were trivial things.

But at the end of the day, what matters most is my friends and my family.

And just being able to be around them and knowing that there's like, so many things that can happen in a day, and just feeling grateful and being appreciative to be here, I think, is really important for me.

And I've actually started talking to my mom a lot because she kind of went through a really rough time with me and my sister.

Not like we were bad kids... -No, no... -But like, just, we didn't have the most money, so she was like, working, and also taking care of us.

So just being very grateful for her, I think it made me appreciate my mom a lot, and her journey and just seeing things from a different eye that I never expected.

-All of us are role models for different people, and then sometimes, our role model is right in front of us who give us strength.

-I wanted to ask you if you had any people that inspire you.

-Yeah, I would say, when you start talking about maternal rights, Allyson Felix is the quiet storm.

-[Billie] Allyson Felix is a role model who challenged the accepted norms in professional sports to make space for the inclusion of women who want to become mothers.

By 2019, she was one of the most decorated Americans in Olympic history and the most decorated Track & Field World Championship winner, male or female, of all time.

But her influence extends way beyond her contributions to sports.

Allyson used her voice to demand more from mothers in the workplace everywhere.

In 2018, she became pregnant with her daughter and kept it a secret because she was afraid of what might happen to her career.

After Allyson delivered her daughter, it was time to renegotiate her contract with her sponsor, Nike.

She was shocked to discover the company proposed a 70% pay cut.

After all of her achievements and a decade of partnership, Nike was penalizing her for choosing to become a mother.

Allyson pushed back and asked Nike to provide her with protection against financial penalties tied to performance that had no regard for the realities of childbirth and new motherhood.

She took a stand and went public with her fight in the press.

-I know my own experience when I decided to start a family and not being supported, ultimately, how it made me feel that I wasn't valued.

And so many women who came before me who struggled.

-[Billie] She realized if this was happening to her, one of the most decorated Olympic athletes in American history, it was likely happening to other women, too.

-[Allyson] I don't think you should have to choose between your profession and having a family, you know, to be able to do both and be able to do both very well.

-[Billie] As a direct result of her activism and after months of negotiations, Nike and other major sponsors changed their corporate policies around maternity protection, now guaranteeing athletes' pay through and after pregnancy.

Allyson Felix continues to advocate for maternal rights.

Her willingness to speak up illustrates the continued fight for equality and fair treatment for all.

-[Diana] I know that we still have a lot of things to work on and need to fight for.

This vision you had from since you were little, where do you feel like where we are right now?

-Well, people are starting to invest in us.

-Right.

-Okay, it's about money.

And men can be unbelievable allies.

When they care, 'cause they have -- usually have more money, and they're powerful, that's what happened to us.

We had many men, most of them were white, allies for us.

Most of the time, in fact, every time we got a sponsor, they also had daughters.

-Right.

-So the first thing I always do with a C.E.O.

when we went for sponsorship is ask him, "Tell me about your family."

And if he came from a family of all boys, like, "Oh, I have four brothers, I have three boys," I'm thinking, "Uh-oh, we're in trouble."

And we would be.

Usually, when we got a sponsorship, the C.E.O.

had a daughter.

-Right.

-Because he understands.

He wakes up -- I can't tell you how many guys go, "I didn't have a daughter, and I saw you play Bobby Riggs or whatever, and then I had a daughter, and you woke me up."

It's like, "You woke me up.

I started to think about, 'God, my daughter -- what am I going to do w--'" He hadn't thought about her.

He thought a lot, he said, about his son and how he's going to raise him and take him, you know, fishing and doing this and playing ball with him.

But he never thought about playing catch with his daughter.

Male allies can be found in the boardroom or the living room.

Some of the most powerful stories of allyship have started with the fathers and mothers found in our own homes.

-I understand that maybe you had a balance beam in your backyard... -Yeah.

-...at a young age.

Is that true?

-Yep, when I was younger, I was always flipping around, like, on the floor and on the bed and stuff.

So my dad decided to build me a beam out of wood, and that was the one thing that I used every single day.

-Was it padded, the beam?

It was just, like, a wood beam?

-Yeah, it was literally -- It was just wood.

-Maybe that's why I wasn't a gymnast.

My parents never built me a balance beam in my backyard.

I'm gonna talk to them about that.

-[ Laughs ] I definitely -- It's, like, so weird.

I don't think I actually could have done anything without that beam.

-Men don't realize how important they are to their daughters a lot of times.

-Right.

-They really don't.

And I've talked to so many men that have daughters and how it changed their life and how they had to rearrange their thinking because they want their daughter to have as much as their son.

It's like, it's a no-brainer to them once they have a daughter.

They go, "Of course!"

But before that, they said, "You know, I never thought about it."

-I used to stay after practice, like, every day with my dad at night, like, throwing the ball.

And I remember he told me like, "Okay, now farther."

-And then your mother also has to play a role in that.

My mother is the reason we got to a tournament or a baseball game.

She was like a saint.

-I got a lot of my inspiration from my mother.

Her and my dad were teenagers when they had my brother.

They were 14 and 16 years of age.

My mother wasn't able to finish high school.

And myself, the oldest girl, a lot of responsibility was put on me.

But I got inspiration from my mother because she had the strength to not give up.

And when people said that, "Your kids and you're not going to amount to anything," she still found a way.

And then, being able to see my mother go through that, but then also being able to watch stories of Babe Zaharias, you know, Wilma Rudolph -- You know, you talk about Billie Jean King, Althea Gibson.

You know, Zina Garrison was someone that I really worked with, as well.

And to know that, uh, these women who inspire me -- My sister-in-law, FloJo, which sometimes when you among what we might consider greatness, that they right -- our own peers, that we don't recognize that.

[ Soft music ] -My dad was dope, like, 100%, you know?

I remember, when I was 7 years old, my dad watched a former Olympian, like, train, as well, in the same half-pipe.

And my dad was like, "Chloe could do that.

She could be an Olympian."

So many people are, like, telling me I shouldn't snowboard.

Family members like, "You shouldn't do it.

You should do a..." -Why?

-..."girly sport," like... -Cooking?

-...golf, tennis.

My dad was like, "No, my daughter's gonna be the best snowboarder in the world."

-Look at that.

This is my daughter.

[ Triumphant music ] -I think the basis of, you know, like, wanting to help others is really important.

Sometimes, the kids will, like, ask me for advice, and, um, I hope they don't have to go through, like, some of the tough times that I had to go through.

So I think that is what I really would want.

I was playing tennis since I was 3 and I was just always with my dad and my sister, playing on the courts, and we would literally pack lunch and eat lunch on the courts.

That's how long we'd be out there.

But there was never a point in my life that I never had a tennis racket in my hand.

When I was a kid, I remember seeing my dad, uh, like, coaching us, and then, randomly, like, the police would get called on him, and just seeing how he had to figure that out and also just have the enthusiasm to tell us like, "It's all okay," and stuff like that.

-Wow.

So, what do you think about people saying "shut up and dribble" or "athletes shouldn't be involved in politics"?

What are your thoughts?

-I think, to me, it doesn't really make that much sense.

I feel like maybe the people that say that type of stuff kind of forget that we're human, too, with our own opinions and our own thoughts.

And some of the most memorable athletic moments to me are -- I don't want to say political, but, like, they have a deeper meaning than just playing the sport.

-I agree with Naomi that some moments in sports history do have a deeper meaning than just playing the sport.

In 1936, American track star Jesse Owens' mere presence at the Berlin Olympics in Nazi Germany brought headlines around the world.

Wyomia Tyus quietly honored the Black women in Jim Crow-era America when, at the 1968 Olympics, she wore dark running shorts instead of the official white U.S. team uniform.

Just days later, Tommie Smith and John Carlos proudly displayed the Black Power symbol to illustrate solidarity with the Civil Rights Movement, resulting in them being dropped from the team and sent back to the U.S.

The United States itself led the boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow as a protest against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.

-And I have notified the Olympic Committee that, with Soviet invading forces in Afghanistan, neither the American people nor I will support sending an Olympic team to Moscow.

[ Applause ] -[Billie] And, of course, American football player Colin Kaepernick, who took a knee to protest police violence.

Athletes have often merged their humanity with their public position to massive influence and effect.

-What gave you the idea, at the U.S. Open, you know, to come up with the mask and to really bring attention to the violence?

What gave you that strength to be able to do that?

-I just remember thinking, like, my first experience watching Trayvon Martin, just because I grew up in Florida, so that really hit home a lot.

I just wanted to use my voice.

Like, there was a lot that happened, it felt like, all at one time.

At the height of everything happening, I remember watching the basketball games, and all of the guys had stopped playing and they had, like, these huge slogans on the court.

And I remember looking at tennis and thinking, like, "Wow, we're not really doing as much as we should."

At the time, I didn't know I had a voice, I didn't know what was gonna happen, but if one person could see it, then -- -[ Laughs ] Millions.

-Yeah.

-[Billie] Naomi broadcasted that Black Lives Matter as she pursued her third Grand Slam victory at the 2020 U.S. Open.

Throughout the tournament, she sported custom black masks, each bearing the name of someone who was killed in a racist attack -- Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, Philando Castile, and Tamir Rice.

She wore seven masks with seven names over seven matches to raise awareness and start conversations.

And that's exactly what she did when she won that year.

-I was inspired by it and I want to say thank you, because some of us don't have the strength.

-Aww, thank you.

-Yeah, amazing.

-After all these years of advocating for equality, if there is one thing I know is that real people drive change and one person can inspire thousands.

A lot of athletes discover they have to be willing to become the vehicle for change or improve conditions, and that is leadership.

-The thing that makes me a bit crazy is that it still has to be the players that initiate this in anything, right?

For women's soccer, it's still the players having to fight for it.

For WNBA, it's still the players.

For whatever sport you're in, the players are having to say, "Come on."

-I mean, even for us, like... -Yeah.

-That's something that, like, a lot of athletes don't realize, is, like, you're the ones actually doing the sport and, like, you're the one that has to, like, speak up.

-Yeah, which is hard, though.

-Yeah.

-Because y-- one, you're afraid of getting cut, right?

-Yes, I'm terrified.

-Yeah, you're terrified.

Like, "Well, I don't wanna miss out on an Olympics or a World Championship or a World Cup."

And that's where that moment of Billie Jean saying, "No, you have the power, and if you get the whole team together, they're not gonna cut you."

-[Naomi] I know that Venus did a lot, as well, in the fight for equal pay, and that's something that I'll always be grateful for her to, because I don't think people know that, necessarily, but she'll always want to fight for the players, and I think that that's really incredible.

-The road to equal pay in women's tennis continues to be a rocky one.

In 1973, I helped push the U.S. Open to award equal prize money to women.

But it would take 11 more years for the Australian Open to get on board and 34 more years before Wimbledon and the French Open followed suit.

Ultimately, it was Venus Williams who said, "Enough is enough."

In 2000, Venus won Wimbledon women's championship title, and just one day later, Pete Sampras won the men's title.

But Pete earned $20,000 more.

The pay discrepancy for the same title at the same event made no sense to Venus.

She was determined, and nothing less than full equality would do.

In 2005, the night before she played and won that year's Wimbledon, Venus spoke before the Grand Slam Committee and laid out her case for equal prize money.

But when nothing changed, in 2006, Venus wrote a column in the U.K. newspaper The Times.

Williams wrote, "Wimbledon has sent me a message.

I am only a second-class champion.

The message I'd like to convey to women and girls across the globe is that there is no glass ceiling.

My fear is that Wimbledon is loudly and clearly sending the opposite message."

Venus' words finally broke through, and the following February, Wimbledon announced it would offer equal prize money for the first time in its 130-year history.

And in 2007, when Williams won Wimbledon again, she became the first woman to collect an equal-sized check as her male counterpart.

Responding to the changing times, the French Open joined Wimbledon the same year and offered equal prize money.

But they were the last Grand Slam tennis tournament to do so.

Equal prize money may seem simple, logical, and fair now, but it took 34 years to achieve that parity in women's tennis.

And it took Venus' persistent efforts to finally make it happen.

-To me, I'm always thinking, like, "Wow.

I hope, like, you know, maybe one day, I can help other players like that, too."

-But your voice give others the voice, too, to stand up.

When you're talking about a sport that is privileged, you know, and you all are standing up and fighting for those who can't fight for themselves.

-[Julie] I think our success came from a place of we just want what's better for the sport, not for what you're gonna gain out of this, because in the end, it's really for the next group.

What do you want for them?

-Like, one thing I, like, stand by is, like, leaving it better than I found it.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-You know, we actually made it a team rule that when the captains would go in for meetings, so me and Carla Overbeck at the time, we would bring in a middle generation and a younger generation, as well.

So if we were the veterans, we'd always bring in, like, younger people.

-Mm-hmm.

-So, my role now is, I've gotta mentor you to carry this over the line, eventually.

-Yes.

-And what's great is, you know, we say, "Keep running.

You keep running.

You sprint."

And they just took off, right?

-[Nancy] I'm really super proud of you.

I've watched you, I've seen you perform, I've seen you on the podium, and, like, I didn't know you, but I was really, really proud of you.

Like, I hope you make a billion dollars.

-Thank you.

-I really do.

If you make a billion, somebody else is gonna make $2 billion.

-Yes.

-There's a 3-year-old who's gonna do what you do because you set the plate for greatness, for endorsements, for opportunities.

-It's really cool seeing it happen.

I'm not competing this season, but there's three young girls, all of them watched me growing up, and they are killing it.

And they have so many opportunities.

Like, all these brands are sponsoring them.

And, you know, I've already gotten so many questions, like, "Oh, are you nervous?

Are you scared that you're gonna get overthrown?"

I hope so!

-Right, it's -- -I hope these young girls surpass me one day, and they probably will very soon.

But it's not -- I'm not angry about it.

I'm not nervous about it.

This is what I want.

This is what I worked for.

I wanted young girls to see that anything was possible for them.

-So, you know you're a pioneer, right?

A pioneer doesn't have to be 64.

A pioneer can be 22, because it's the evolution of where the game is now, where the sport is now.

So you're setting the plate for the next generation and the next generation.

-[Billie] Each generation builds on the progress of the previous generation, and the U.S. soccer team is living proof of that progress.

Their determination and perseverance changed the game for soccer in America from an unknown, unrecognized 1991 team to the strategic powerhouse of the 2017 team.

The women of soccer worked together to finally demand equal pay.

On International Women's Day in March 2019, the United States Women's National Soccer Team shocked the world when they announced that they were suing their employers for gender discrimination.

It was a bold, history-making move that set off a firestorm in the wider world of sports and drew international attention, prompting fans to chant "Equal pay!"

when the U.S. team won the Women's World Cup final in France that year.

-The strength of unequal pay rests on the notion of unequal value.

-[Billie] Players were asking to be paid the same as their male counterparts, even though their team was performing better than the men's.

The women's soccer team had better success at the World Cup and at the Olympics, another event they'd won four times to the men's team's zero times.

-[Megan Rapinoe] I've helped, along with all my teammates, win four World Cup championships and four Olympic gold medals for the United States.

And despite those wins, I've been devalued, I've been disrespected, and dismissed because I am a woman.

And I've been told that I don't deserve any more than less because I am a woman.

-[Billie] The team generated more revenue than the men.

They played in worse conditions, but ultimately won more games.

But the men's side got more money to show up for games, more money when they'd win, more money when they qualified for the World Cup, and even more money once they got there.

The men also received five-star hotels, charter flights, marketing, training, and better fields.

Finally, in February 2022, the two sides settled the lawsuit, and U.S. Soccer agreed to pay the women a record $22 million in back pay.

The new agreement ensures that, for the first time, true pay equity has been achieved in the sport on a national level.

-Equal work deserves equal pay.

-[Billie] The men and women's sides will receive equal appearance fees and match bonuses, equal revenue from the ticket sales and merchandise, equal playing conditions, travel arrangements, training facilities, and, most notably, they'll split their FIFA World Cup prize money equally.

They are the first national team to achieve this in the history of the sport, and it is inspiring other athletes in other sports to know their worth and fight for it.

Boys are taught to be brave, and girls are taught to be perfect.

-Right.

-And that's where a lot of our self-confidence -- lack of self confidence -- comes from, because nobody can be perfect.

And to the men and boys, you can't be brave all the time, and that's not right either.

So it's -- We've gotta be socialized differently.

But women's sports is allowing girls to be socialized differently.

Girls are taught not to ask for what we want and need.

-Mm-hmm.

-Ask for what you want and need.

-Show up.

-Show up, right.

Gotta show up and speak up.

[ Upbeat music ] -When I talk to my son, TJ, who's 28, and he's a professional athlete, he'll say to me, "Mom, sometimes you're so aggressive."

And I said, "TJ, I had to be aggressive for the next generation of women so they could be at peace to do their job."

My personality is strong, and I don't think, in many cases, I should be told not to have a strong personality or strong belief system, because men who have a strong belief system are shining stars.

They're silver bullets.

And we women who are strong or say, "I'm gonna win the gold," "Oh, my gosh, she's -- What an egomaniac."

No, you feel that you're going to win the gold.

-Mm-hmm.

-I feel that I can win a championship.

If somebody said, "Chloe, Nancy, are you guys great at what you did or what you do?

", and I would say "yes."

Why would I say "no"?

But some people take offense to that.

Like, "How arrogant are they?"

And that's what bothers me.

Accomplished women in business, in sports, in life, they're so arrogant.

Why can't we just be we're such achievers because we work so hard?

-[Chloe] It didn't come easy to me.

I put in the blood, sweat, and tears to get there.

-[Nancy] And sacrifice.

-And sacrifice.

I sacrificed most of my childhood.

I didn't go to school.

I was homeschooled.

I finished high school in two and a half, three years so that I could focus on the Olympics.

I hustled, so, yeah, I'm going to be confident.

I'm going to think I'm...

I'm the best because I am.

I worked to be the best.

And that's why we're here today.

[ Upbeat music ] -[Billie] For this generation, working to be the best in the world is starting to pay off financially, and the media is finally catching on to just how popular women's sports can be.

The thing where all the money is today is media rights, and men have all the media rights, not women's sports.

Women's basketball at the NCAA they used to throw in as free.

This year, for the first time, they're gonna start really trying to get media rights, and the interest is just going through the roof.

They have never really gone out and tried to sell media rights for the women's basketball on its own.

-Forever, we have said that you're missing out on all this potential.

There's all these fans out there that would consume it if you actually put it out there.

And I know I'm not the only athlete that's said that.

Every sport has said that, right?

Going back to my generation of, "Why aren't we covering this?

Why aren't you showing this on TV?

Put it on a, you know, a slot where people will watch it.

Put it on a network where people will watch it."

And, you know, the '99 World Cup showed when you actually put it on TV and you go to big stadiums and you market it and you water the garden, it actually blooms, right?

People will show up.

-Yes.

-It's this amazing effect of when you market it and pay attention to something, people come.

I saw a video of you, um, performing a perfect 10, and you, like, stuck this landing.

-[Announcer] She has the technique, the difficulty, the superb amplitude.

What does she not have?

-[Announcer 2] She has more difficulty than everybody put together.

In a class all by itself.

[ Crowd cheering ] -[Announcer] Put your pencils down, Judges.

-[Julie] It's a huge gym.

How many can you fit there?

-I think it holds about like 10,000?

-Yeah, it was packed, and the place just roared.

-[ Laughs ] -So that potential we've known for so long is there.

It's interesting to me that it's now exploding in every sport.

As you were saying, Auburn -- packed stadiums, right?

WNBA, we're seeing large numbers.

NWSL ownership going through the roof in terms of numbers and attendance.

Women's soccer, I mean, all these different sports.

March Madness, their basketball numbers.

-Yeah.

-9.9 million.

It's crazy.

-It's really incredible to see, like, the evolution of all of it.

And I think I'm more excited because it's only going to continue to get better.

-Oh, yeah.

It's gonna be changed in so many different fronts in terms of support and attendance and viewership, and all those numbers are all toggling in this, like, skyrocketing fashion.

It's going to be fun for you guys.

I'm fascinated, all of the NIL stuff, name, image, and likeness, that's happening with college athletes and their ability, finally, to make money, men and women, and how that affects you.

-It definitely has impacted a lot, because I wouldn't be in college right now if it wasn't for NIL.

-[Billie] In the simplest of terms, NIL, name, image, and likeness, describes how college athletes are allowed to receive financial compensation.

It is the workaround for athletes to get paid without technically being considered "professional athletes."

NCAA rules still prevent schools from paying players directly, but they can receive gifts from boosters, make deals with companies, and endorse products.

The new guidelines provide a loose gray area that is still being interpreted by lawyers and athletes alike.

As of now, the NCAA has stated that the current rules are temporary until Congress creates national laws and regulations around NIL.

Although NIL was initially thought to mostly benefit male athletes, the female athletes have benefited even more, with Olivia Dunne, an LSU gymnast, topping the list of highest-paid NIL earners.

These new rules have created a modern-day Wild West situation with everyone looking to find where exactly the line in the sand is and what might happen when they cross it.

It's no longer a question of should college athletes be paid, but how.

-With the NIL exploding... -Mm-hmm.

-...the flip side of it is some will say, "Oh, it's the Wild Wild West," right?

Like, some athletes are just choosing universities because they're paying them more.

-Yeah.

-Do you agree with that?

Disagree with that?

And do you think that's a downside of it?

Because you do see some instances with, for example, a male quarterback who, you know, whatever school he's kind of toggling between is, like, this bidding war, which I think takes away some of the authenticity around collegiate sports.

-Yeah, I definitely think so, because it's, like, unfair, and it can be biased.

And that's the one thing I don't like about NIL.

But, I mean, I wouldn't be where I am without it.

-Yeah.

I do like that that it's given a lot of -- of women the ability to make a little bit more money, especially, you know, because you have a lot of female athletes who are like, "Should I go pro?"

And you're seeing that -- You know, before, it was like, "Oh, I need to go make some money.

If I can get a big deal, I'm going to leave school," which I never think is a good idea.

I would want my kid to finish school if they could, right?

You're actually seeing some athletes stay in longer... -Yeah.

-...because they can now make... -More money than even being pro.

-Yeah, than even being pro.

And so they stay in school longer, which I -- I don't think there's a downside to that, right?

-No.

-And enjoying your... -It's actually really exciting, too, and I think it just shines a lot more light on women's sports in general, which is incredible.

[ Upbeat music ] -So, talking about, like, the progress.

-Yes?

-Where do you think, like, we are standing right now in terms of what's missing to do?

What still we have to work on?

-I think it's gonna take over 150 to 200 years to get equal, but every generation has to, you know, push the envelope forward and pass the baton forward, like a relay race.

Just keep passing that baton, each generation.

I always think about that when I watch a relay.

That's what they're doing.

It's like each player that gets the baton is a different generation, and the last one's the last generation, but they usually are the quickest one.

So we just have to keep pushing.

-What do you think the world would look like without Title IX?

Scary thought.

-The world without Title IX would not have Chloe Kim and Nancy Lieberman sitting in the same room together.

It is amazing how many people still don't know what Title IX is.

Title IX has given us a chance to shine and affect the world.

Because we're inseparable in what we're supposed to do, it's in your hands.

-You know, in Mexico, we do not have yet something like Title IX.

I am so honored and happy to be part of a big movement of amazing women in Mexico that truly believes this, too.

And we haven't had, like, an opportunity, until now.

And I received this, uh, notice like three days ago, actually, that we're going to have the opportunity this month to present the initiative... -You are?

-...to the congress in Mexico.

-So you or the team or what?

-It is me, as an ambassador, working with amazing women involved in sports also as ambassadors.

So we are pushing forward that.

-Well, congratulations.

That's great.

What you're doing in Mexico now is exactly what we have to keep doing, because you're going to change the lives of people alive, but the babies that haven't been born yet, just think what that's gonna -- I mean, they'll just expect it.

They go, "Oh, yeah, of course."

Well, somebody had to pay the price, but everybody does that.

And that's why history's so important to learn, because I stand on their shoulders, and when I learn about these different women, you know, of all colors and religions, you know, you really realize how important what you're doing in Mexico is part of that progress and that progression of getting there.

-I wanted to give you... -Uh-oh.

-...like, a... -[ Gasps ] -...little gift to you.

-Oh, this is so precious.

-This comes from Mexico.

It is handmade with our... -Oh, I love this.

-Oh, this is great.

And it's a heart.

-[ Laughs ] It is a heart.

-This is beautiful.

Thank you so much.

It's so precious.

Guess what I brought with me.

Remember this?

-Oh!

-It's flag.

This is the flag you gave me from the football.

You were so sweet.

Now I've got two gifts, and I didn't give her anything.

This is not good.

Anyway, this -- Remember when you brought this?

-Yeah.

-And then -- Because it says "Inspire."

You said, "Thanks for being an inspiration," which I was so touched.

[ Inspiring music ] -For me, Title IX is a step forward in the right path, and I feel like we just want to keep taking steps forward for progress.

-With your platform, with your voice, you leading the way, you know, our future is in great hands.

Opportunities like this, talking about Title IX, allow me to be able to meet you, and I am so grateful and so honored.

[ Inspiring music ] -[Nancy] This has been delightful for me.

I've had some really great experiences in my life with amazing people, and this is gonna be at the top of the list.

-I can't wait to hear about Mexico now.

That is gonna be so awesome.

-Great things are yet to come.

-Oh, you're just getting started.

When I first met you, I could tell within one second that you accept and embrace leadership.

Your life is just beginning.

You h-- You're just going to have the best life, I can tell.

-I already told you this, but... [ Deep breath ] ...you are truly an inspiration to me.

-Thank you.

-You have empowered me.

You have filled my heart with this fire and power to keep going and to be aware that what we do has a bigger impact than ourselves.

-Yes.

-That is everything is for the future and the ones that are coming behind us.

So I want to thank you for that.

-I appreciate that.

-Thank you for everything you have done for women in sports, but for women in general and for people.

-Thank you.

-♪ Hold on just one more day ♪ ♪ Hold on... ♪ -[Billie] Title IX and the pursuit of equality is my enduring legacy.

It's not only athletes or legislators who are the guardians of Title IX.

It's all of us who share this country.

While, at times, it's been slow, we have, indeed, made progress and we have, indeed, broken down barriers, on the court and off.

[ Upbeat music ] That's how you make change.

And we'll keep doing it for generations to come.

[ Upbeat music ] -To order "Groundbreakers" on DVD, visit Shop PBS or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS.

This program is also available on Amazon Prime Video and with PBS Passport.