Navratilova weighs in again on transgender athletes after college record broken
Former tennis player Martina Navratilova has again made anti-transgender comments, with the 67-year-old lashing out at a transgender woman who broke a swimming record at a small liberal arts college this past weekend.
Meghan Cortez-Fields, the swimmer, finished the 100-yard butterfly in 57.22 seconds – a record for Ramapo College, which enrolls about 6,000 students. She also finished in second place in the 200-yard butterfly.
Navratilova, who spends significant time nowadays commenting online about transgender women in sports, wrote, “Women’s sports is not the place for mediocre male athletes who compete as women. Period.”
In a separate post, she added: “I will keep saying this over and over – this is wrong and completely fair and quite frankly a mockery.”
Despite no providing no evidence to back up her claims, Navratilova has not held back in her comments surrounding gender identity. She apologised after strong comments in a Sunday Times interview where she used the word ‘cheat’.
A post on her website saw her clarify the reasoning behind her remarks. “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 know I don’t have all the answers. I don’t think there is a definitive answer here. That is why I want a debate, a conversation that includes everyone and is based, as I have said, not on feeling or emotion but science, objectivity and the best interests of women’s sport as a whole.
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Ramapo College told Fox News in a statement that it continues to support swimmer Cortez-Fields despite deleting a social media post about her weekend accomplishment.
“The original post of Meghan’s achievement was deleted by a peer who wanted to protect their teammate from insulting comments on the post,” the school told Fox News. “The College continues to post team and individual student-athlete achievements for all programs on our Athletics website.
“As a member affiliate of the NCAA, Ramapo College Athletics follows all NCAA policies, including the NCAA Transgender Student Participation Policy.”
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The NCAA has outlined clear policies regarding transgender women competing in officially sanctioned women’s sports events. The organization writes: “A trans female student-athlete being treated with testosterone suppression medication for Gender Identity Disorder or gender dysphoria and/or Transsexualism, for the purposes of NCAA competition may continue to compete on a men’s team but may not compete on a women’s team without changing it to a mixed team status until completing one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment.”
Cortez-Fields has followed all of those rules and, according to NJ.com, tested below the 5 nanomoles per liter testosterone threshold. She has received death threats amid the backlash from Navratilova and like-minded individuals, her school has said.
None of the swimmers Cortez-Fields competed against over the weekend expressed concern about her entrance, and NJ.com writes that her teammates at Ramapo College have openly supported her following her transition.
Recently retired U.S. women’s national team soccer legend Megan Rapinoe has been among the vocal athletes to encourage women like Cortez-Fields and criticize Navratilova’s way of thinking.
Rapinoe told Time: “You’re taking a ‘real’ woman’s place;’ that’s the part of the argument that’s still extremely transphobic. I see trans women as real women.
“What you’re saying automatically in the argument – you’re sort of telling on yourself already – is you don’t believe these people are women. Therefore, they’re taking the other spot. I don’t feel that way.”
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