“What’s wrong with you?” Martina Navratilova releases her frustration on social media after Lia Thomas’ nomination for the NCAA Woman of the Year

“What’s wrong with you?” Martina Navratilova releases her frustration on social media after Lia Thomas’ nomination for the NCAA Woman of the Year

Lia Thomas and Martina Navratilova

Former tennis legend and the 9-time singles Wimbledon champion, Martina Navratilova is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. She has won 59 major titles, the most by any player in the Open era. She played her last match in the year 2006 at the US Open in the mixed doubles category and even won the title. She is an activist for LGBT issues since she opened up about being one of them.

Swimmer Lia Thomas became the first transgender woman to win medals at the NCAA Swimming Championship and NCAA Diving Championship. She won the gold medal in the 500m freestyle category after defeating Olympic silver medal winners Emma Weyant and Erica Sullivan by more than a second. Thomas started her swimming career in the year 2017 by taking part in the men’s team of her school team. But gradually, after her hormone transplant surgery, she joined the women’s team in 2020 after taking a year-long break to be able to completely fit and ready to compete at big events.

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Martina Navratilova desires a separate category for such players in the future

martinalia
Lia Thomas

The University of Pennsylvania nominated the swimmer for the NCAA Women of the Year award after a fantastic performance in the 2021-2022 swimming tournament. This award is designed to recognize female student-athletes for their extraordinary contribution during their college careers.

Martina Navratilova has been very vocal about this since March 2022 as she felt that Thomas has an undue advantage over the others in her category due to the physical and hormonal changes in her body. She did not deny the fact that Thomas is a fantastic swimmer and should participate in the Olympics and can break records but winning medals is something she doesn’t feel is correct.

The American feels that such players should be allowed to compete at their wish but in a separate category which will make the competition more balanced. She wishes to have two different categories- one for everyone involved and the other one just for biological females. Trans women will compete in the men’s category and trans men will have a choice.

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