22-year-old American Swimmer Lia Thomas has become a recent topic of conversation for many sports personalities around the world. Recently, she created history by winning the NCAA 500m freestyle as a transgender athlete. However, people are debating over the legality of Thomas’ participation in the women’s event. Legendary tennis player Martina Navratilova is the latest to join the debate, as she spoke about the controversy surrounding Lia Thomas. 

Martina Navratilova thinks Lia Thomas should not take part in the women’s event

In an exclusive interview with NewsNation, 18-time Grand Slam champion Martina Navratilova questioned Thomas’ participation in the women’s category. However, she blamed NCAA and their rules for allowing this to happen.

“It’s not about excluding transgender women from winning, ever. But it is about not allowing them to win when they were not anywhere near winning as men. You try to keep it as close as possible to what it would have been had you been born in the female biological body in the first place,” Navratilova said. 

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“The solution perhaps for now is (for Thomas) to swim in another lane or you can compete but you don’t get the medal because the (NCAA) rules are not correct. Right now, the rules are what they are. Maybe put an asterisk there, if she starts breaking records left and right and if Lia goes to the Olympics because she’s hitting her prime now physically. In the future, maybe it should be an open category for everybody and then biological females, so trans women can compete but they compete against men and trans men have a choice,” Navratilova further talked about a possible solution. 

According to the USA Swimming policy, Trans athletes need to go through a three-year hormone replacement therapy before competing. 

As per various reports, Thomas received mixed reactions from the crowd as she competed in the swimming facility at Georgia Tech. Many protesters also gathered outside of the swimming facility to protest against Lia by holding plenty of banners. 

Other elite athletes echo Navratilova’s thoughts too

Apart from Navratilova, other world-famous athletes like Michael Phelps and Caitlyn Jenner also weighed in with their opinions. Phelps believes there should be a level playing field. Whereas, Jenner thinks biological boys should not compete in women’s sports, as Thomas has a bigger cardiovascular system, along with long arms and legs. 

Transgender tennis player Renee Richards was the coach of Navratilova 

Renee Richards was one of the first transgender athletes who played against Navratilova in the 1970s. Later, Richards became the coach of Navratilova and they won two Wimbledon titles together. As per Martina, Renee also agrees with her, as she said, “By the way, Renee Richards agrees with me on this that, she probably shouldn’t have been allowed to compete 40 years ago. Looking back, she had an advantage, she knows that.”

What’s your view regarding the situation with Lia Thomas? Let us know in the comments.

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