1975 WOMEN'S PRELIMINARY 1

Women's Superstars began as an outgrowth of the 1973 Battle of the Sexes competition in tennis where Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in the Houston Astrodome. A little more than a year later, Billie Jean was back in the Astrodome as one of the competitors in the first Women's Superstars competition. King was in the second of two preliminary groups. Both groups competed at the same time. With most of the events taking place in the Astrodome, about 1,500 spectators attended on day one and 2,500 on the second day. Curry Kirkpatrick, covering the event of Sports Illustrated noted that "The elements that made this Superstars in some ways infinitely more interesting than then men's were not only the camaraderie and fetching byplay of the contestants, but a bristling competitiveness that for some reason, perhaps a fear of losing cool, has been lacking the men's Superstars." In group 1, the first two spots were grabbed by 1972 Olympic champions, diver Micki King and speed skater Dianne Holum. King had trained hard for the competition, in the style of Bob Seagren and won four events. Softball legend Joan Joyce and future Olympic speed skating champion and world cycling champion Sheila Young nabbed third and fourth place. As six athletes from each group would advance to the finals held in Rotonda in January, alpine skier Kiki Cutter and Hawaiian surfer Laura Ching wrapped up the final two spots. [Note: I do not have all the results, but I do have the standings after 3 events: Cutter & King 17; Joyce 14; Young 7; Palmer 5; Holum 4; Chaffee, Blalock & Ching 2; Cochran & Smith 1.]

The Astrodome; Houston, Texas

Competition Dates: December 21-22, 1974

Air Date: January 19, 1975

Announcer: Keith Jackson and Donna de Varona.

INDIVIDUAL EVENT RESULTS

Not available

LINK: Sports Illustrated Article

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