There’s a good sport: Davies backs Navratilova in trans cheating protest
Tennis great apologises as former swim star calls for debate about athletes born with male bodies
MARTINA NAVRATILOVA has apologised for suggesting athletes who “cynically change gender” to win trophies in women’s sports could be “cheating”.
The tennis star, a long-term champion of equality in sport, said she was sorry for causing offence by the use of the word “cheat”, but stood by her concerns about transgender athletes in sport.
After being accused of transphobia, she was dropped as an ambassador of an LGBT group, which condemned what they labelled her “deeply troubling comments”, calling for further debate of the physical advantages of athletes born as men competing against women.
Other female sports stars including swimmer Sharron Davies, the Commonwealth Games swimming gold medallist, have come forward to support an open debate about athletes born with male bodies competing with women, warning that in “some sports it could be truly dangerous”.
“To protect women’s sport, those with a male sex advantage should not be able to compete in women’s sport,” Davies said this weekend.
The comments and apology have followed furious debate over the issue of transgender people in sport, with Navratilova the highest-profile athlete so far to call for rules that ensure “girls and women who were born female are competing on as level a playing field as possible within their sport”.
After first airing her thoughts on Twitter earlier this year, Navratilova wrote in a newspaper: “To put the argument at its most basic: a man can decide to be female, take hormones if required by whatever sporting organisation is concerned, win everything in sight and perhaps earn a small fortune, and then reverse his decision and go back to making babies. It’s insane and it’s cheating.”
Navratilova’s comments were criticised by Dr Rachel Mckinnon, the first transgender woman to win a cycling world title, who described the tennis legend as a “transphobe”.
In a blog post, Navratilova has now described how she “certainly stumbled into a hornets’ nest”, receiving a “barrage of quite nasty personal attacks”.
“I know that my use of the word ‘cheat’ caused particular offence among the transgender community. I’m sorry for that because I certainly was not suggesting that transgender athletes in general are cheats.
“I attached the label to a notional case in which someone cynically changes gender, perhaps temporarily, to gain a competitive advantage.
“We should not be blind to the possibility and some of these rules are making that possible and legal.”
She added: “What I really wanted to do was try to open up the debate about equality and fairness in relation to transgender participation in women’s sport. There were too many voices that were silenced and shamed into submission and that is not right.
“My aim was to encourage a more scientific, rather than emotional, conversation and to search for a solution that would work better than current arrangements.
“I was motivated by concern about the future of women’s
‘I am motivated by concern about the future for women’s sport... by trying to be fair and inclusive for one group, others can be adversely affected’
sport and my worry that by trying to be fair and inclusive for one group, others can be adversely affected, that eliminating one kind of discrimination can inadvertently give rise to another.”
Saying it was “obvious that men have certain inherent physiological advantages over women”, Navratilova called for “fair and open discussions to be had without preconceptions or prejudice, and without people being vilified as ‘transphobic’”.
Sportswomen including Dame Kelly Holmes and Paula Radcliffe have spoken out on social media.
Sharron Davies said: “I believe there is a fundamental difference between the binary sex you are born with and the gender you may identify as. To protect women’s sport, those with a male sex advantage should not be able to compete in women’s sport.”
She told the BBC: “Every single woman athlete I’ve spoken to, and I have spoken to many, all of my friends in international sports, understand and feel the same way as me.
“We need to come up with a unified set of rules that is clear, concise and fair.”
On Twitter, Radcliffe said: “There isn’t an outcome ‘fair’ to everyone, more than ever, respect and understanding of all positions and views without bullying, personal attacks or vested self-interest is needed.”
Dame Kelly said: “This is not about how people live their lives, who they are or who people chose to be. But setting fair and safe markers in sport is a must.”