I wanted to use sports for social change.

King frames athletics not as an end in itself but as a platform—an arena with visibility, money, and cultural authority that can be leveraged to shift norms. Read against her career, the line points to her long-running efforts to link sporting success to structural change: equal pay and professional opportunities for women athletes, broader gender equality, and later LGBTQ+ visibility. The quote also implies intentionality: social progress is not a byproduct of winning but something she sought to pursue through organizing, advocacy, and public example. It captures a modern understanding of “sports activism,” where competition and citizenship are intertwined.