PWHL and LA Dodgers co-owner Mark Walter pledges $5.5 million to Women’s Sports Foundation

NEW YORK (AP) — Mark Walter, the PWHL and Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner, pledged $5.5 million to the $55 million capital campaign of the Women’s Sports Foundation on Wednesday night.

Billie Jean King and nearly 100 athletes celebrated the 50th anniversary of the foundation, which King started with a $5,000 check.

Mark and Kimbra Walter received the Billie Jean King Leadership Award for starting the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

“Women’s sports have really turned the corner and it’s never going to go back,” Walter said. “Attendance, media rights, franchise values are all skyrocketing.”

King collaborated with Walter to form the PWHL, which begins its second season next month with teams in Boston, Minnesota, New York, Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa.

“Our sports teams, Guggenheim and other companies, are going to pledge $5.5 million,” Walter said, “to put our money where our mouth is.”

The 1999 U.S. women’s national team received the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award. The team won the World Cup before a record crowd of more than 90,000 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

“It wasn’t just about winning a World Cup,” said goalkeeper Briana Scurry, who accepted the award on behalf of her teammates. “It was about redefining the way people perceived women’s sports in this country.”

Lucinda Adams, the 87-year-old teammate of Rudolph on the 1960 Olympic gold medal 4x100 relay team, joined the soccer players on stage at Cipriani Wall Street.

The 2024 WNBA rookie class received the Next Gen Award. Indiana’s Caitlin Clark and Chicago’s Angel Reese helped produce record attendance and TV ratings this summer.

The Women’s Sports Foundation provides travel and training grants, local sports programs and mentoring for athletes and coaches. The foundation feted King and her partner Ilana Kloss, longtime advocates for equal pay and more investment in women’s sports.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Julie Foudy poses for photos on the red carpet at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute to Women in Sports, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

Billie Jean King speaks to reporters on the red carpet at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute to Women in Sports, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

Briana Scurry poses for photos on the red carpet at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute to Women in Sports, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

Billie Jean King, left, and Ilana Kloss, right, pose for photos on the red carpet at the Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute to Women in Sports, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

FILE - Mark Walter speaks during a news conference in Los Angeles on Sept. 21, 2018. AP Photo/Alex Gallardo, File)

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia will give 49 of its aging M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine months after Kyiv requested the redundant fleet, Defense Minister Richard Marles said Thursday.

The Australian government was giving Ukraine most of its American-made M1A1 tanks, which are valued at 245 million Australian dollars ($163 million), Marles said. They will be replaced in Australia by a fleet of 75 next-generation M1A2 tanks.

In February, Marles said that giving Ukraine the tanks as they were phased out was not on his government’s agenda. But on Thursday he said he did not regard the donation as a backflip on his government's previous position.

“We talk with the Ukrainian government consistently around how best we can support them,” Marles told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

“We look at the material that we have; its effectiveness, ... the shape that it’s in, to be frank, whether it would be able to make a difference, whether it can be sustained and maintained so that it can be kept in the fight. And the Abrams tanks fit all of those criteria,” he added.

Ukraine's Ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, would not be drawn on opposition lawmakers’ criticisms that the tanks should have been donated earlier.

“This is a very timely, a very substantial and very fit-for-purpose announcement,” Myroshnychenko said. “We respect the decision of the government. It was not an easy one and I’m very happy that it was a positive one."

The tanks bring the total value of Australia’s military assistance to Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion to over AU$1.3 billion ($866 million).

The United States agreed to send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in January 2023 after an aggressive monthslong campaign by Kyiv arguing that the tanks were vital to its ability to breach Russian lines.

In this photo released by Australian Department of Defence, an Australian Army trooper fires the .50 cal heavy machine gun from an Australian Army M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank during Exercise Gauntlet Strike at the Puckapunyal Military Area in Victoria, Australia, on June 26, 2024. (CPL Johnny Huang/Australian Department of Defence via AP)