Few voices in women’s sports carry the weight that Martina Navratilova’s does, and recently in an interview, she made her case about transgender athletes and the category question that has divided competitive sport.
“There should be no ostracization or bullying, but male bodies need to play in male sports. They can still compete,” she said. “There is no ban on trans women in sports. They just need to compete in the proper category, which is the male category. It’s that simple.”
The argument draws a clear distinction between exclusion and categorization. Navratilova’s position is that transgender women are not being turned away from competition, but that placing male-bodied athletes in women’s events has consequences that fall squarely on women.
“But by including male bodies in the women’s tournament, now somebody is not getting into the tournament. A woman is not getting into the tournament because now a male has taken her place,” she said.
Those comments, part of an interview broadcast by the BBC that is no longer available on BBC iPlayer, have taken on renewed relevance as governing bodies grapple with their own policies.
The Lawn Tennis Association, for one, continues to permit male-bodied players to take part at all levels of grassroots women’s tennis, up to and including club championships, a policy at odds with the straightforward framework Navratilova is proposing.
Her views have also deepened a public rift with Billie Jean King, her longtime friend and fellow tennis icon. King has remained a strong supporter of transgender inclusion in sports, a position that anti-trans groups have increasingly pressured her to abandon. Navratilova, by contrast, shows no sign of moving from her stance.
“And welcome them, and everybody gets a chance,” she added, making clear that her argument is not built on exclusion but on protecting the integrity of the women’s category. For Navratilova, those two things are not in conflict. The question, she argues, is a matter of where, not whether, transgender athletes compete.
