• TENNIS PLAYER
• Defected from Soviet-controlled Czechoslovakia to the United States at 18 years old -- because of this she was isolated from her family for many years
• Won 59 Grand Slam titles
• Lost only six matches from 1982-1984
• ONLY tennis player in the world to be ranked #1 in both singles and doubles for more than 200 weeks
• Became the OLDEST Wimbledon champion in 2003
• Vocal activist for LGBTQ rights, she received the National Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign, although she has received criticism for her views on transgender women in sports
• Also an advocate for animal rights and freedom of speech
• Her grandmother was the #2 female tennis player in Czechoslovakia
• Also co-authored a mystery series

Not So Awesome

As an outspoken activist, Navratilova often uses social media to voice her opinions on a wide range of topics. In 2018, she tweeted -- in her classic acerbic style -- that having male genitalia should exclude an athlete from participating in women's sports. A significant backlash resulted, with transgender athletes labeling the comments as transphobic, and some LGBTQ organizations dropping their association with her. A couple months later, Navratilova followed up her comment with an op-ed in The Sunday Times titled, "The rules on trans athletes reward cheats and punish the innocent," giving the argument that the existing requirements essentially allowed men who were not good enough to win in male competitions to participate -- and win -- in women's sports under the guise of being trans. This situation, she argued, was unfair to cisgender female athletes and akin to cheating. She apologized a few weeks later for intimating that trans athletes were cheaters, but she continues her anti-trans position, including by signing a letter in support of Idaho legislation that bans trans women from participating in female interscholastic sports. Her comments on this issue have also been quoted by others to support similar legislation.

Bibliography: Allen, Kathy. Girls Race! Amazing Tales of Women in Sports. North Mankato: Capstone Press, 2014. Print.
Doyle, Caitlin. Girls Can Do Anything: From Sports to Innovation, Art to Politics, Meet Over 200 Women Who Got There First. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2016. Print.
Ring, Trudy. (2020, August 3). Martina Navratilova Supports Idaho's Ban on Trans Female Athletes. https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2020/8/03/martina-navratilova-supports-idahos-ban-trans-female-athletes.

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