LOS ANGELES • Tennis great Billie Jean King has urged female athletes to keep sight of the need to continue their push for equality despite the myriad of setbacks caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking at an online panel event titled #WeKeepPlaying and hosted by her Women's Sports Foundation and Yahoo on Saturday night, the American said that she hoped to provide comfort and encouragement to the thousands of women who tuned in to view it.

"But I also want them to think about the future as well," added the 76-year-old, who has famously waged a battle for equal pay in professional tennis lasting many decades.

King said her early goals for women's tennis were to make sure all girls would have a place to compete, that women would be valued more for their accomplishments than their looks, and to ensure female athletes earned enough to make a living.

It is still an ongoing struggle, the 12-time Grand Slam champion acknowledged.

"Many of these athletes still do not have the dreams and the opportunities that they deserve," she said. "All of us have a chance here, every single one of us as a leader, has a platform to keep pushing forward for future generations."

While strides have been made towards pay equality in tennis - the prize money for male and female players across the four Grand Slams are the same - other sports are still languishing behind.

"Women's ice hockey has a long way to go," said Coyne Schofield, a forward for the United States national team.

"Right now, the professional landscape of women's hockey is a disaster.

"Until we can show young girls the dream of growing up to be a professional athlete who can make a living doing it, our goal has not been met."

Although the formation of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association last year is a promising first step that will help the players speak with one voice, the pay gap between the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) and the men's National Hockey League (NHL) remains enormous.

The minimum salary in the NHL is US$700,000 (S$989,400), compared to US$2,500 for the NWHL.

Wage disparity has also long been a bone of contention for women's football, but World Cup-winning midfielder Carli Lloyd believes her US national team's ongoing lawsuit against their federation over allegations of gender discrimination and lower pay is already having a positive ripple effect

"Obviously, we've been very successful over the years on the field, but more importantly what we're doing off the field has been so powerful," she said.

"We are empowering so many other women across the globe to fight to make things better."

On how more international players are now pushing to get better collective bargaining agreements as they start to see more money pumped into the women's game, the 37-year-old Lloyd said: "When you hear about that investment, you are seeing the product on the field.

"So we need to continue to do that for women's soccer."

REUTERS