Olympics-Pioneer Billie Jean King hails extraordinary progress in women's sport

By Amy Tennery

PARIS (Reuters) - The focus on gender equity at the Paris Olympics is the latest win in a terrific run of progress for women's sports, tennis champion and pioneer Billie Jean King told Reuters, as organisers trumpet the progress made for women at the Games.

The Paris Games are the first to see an equal split of the quota places between female and male athletes, a landmark moment for the Olympic movement that the IOC has been chasing for years.

It marks another high point for women's sports in a run of good news for advocates like King, along with the WNBA in the U.S. enjoying soaring ratings and the Professional Women's Hockey League's (PWHL) celebrating a successful inaugural year.

"The last two or three, four or five years now - it's been a real progression. And I really feel fortunate that I'm alive to see this," she told Reuters.

"I think about the women and the people that cared about us, women's sports, back in the old days, and they're not alive today. I wish they were. Because of all the work they did and it couldn't get any place so much of the time."

A hundred years after Paris last hosted the Games, when 135 women and 2,954 men competed, King said the IOC is "showing the world it's doing the right thing."

"These Olympics giving so much focus on equality this year is exactly what the dream would be," said King, who helped the U.S. capture the gold as the country's Olympic women's tennis coach in 1996 and 2000.

An advocate for women para athletes, the 12-times major winner was quick to note that the Paralympians would want to see the same equity, too. The Paralympic competition that kicks off in Paris after the Olympics is expected to have about a 55% to 45% allocation of spots for men and women, respectively.

Even so, the progress is satisfying for King five decades after she spearheaded the formation of the WTA, the first truly global professional sports tour for women.

And as the United States in particular embrace the star power of their female athletes, King sees a paradigm shift.

"Finally we're looked at as an investment not a charity," she said.

The Olympic year is made all the more sweet as King celebrates the 50th anniversary of her Women's Sports Foundation and fans can expect to see her in the audience at Roland Garros as she takes in the Paris Games.

"Equal at the Olympics sort of sends a new message," she said. "It's a totally different ball game now."

(Reporting by Amy Tennery in Paris; Editing by Hugh Lawson)