"I cried when I left, not when I got there" – When Martina Navratilova spoke about her first trip to communist Czechoslovakia after becoming a US Citizen

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova once spoke about her first trip to Czechoslovakia after becoming a US Citizen.

Martina Navratilova, who was born in Czechoslovakia in 1956, sought political asylum in the United States at the age of 18, when the communist country planned to restrict her travel to the tournaments in the States. She was soon stripped of her Czechoslovakian citizenship but was granted American citizenship in 1981.

Navratilova revisited her homeland in 1986 for the first time since switching citizenship. The 18-time Major champion, who was there to represent the United States at the Federation Cup, said in an old interview, that she was incredibly saddened while leaving her country of birth because she had the privilege to do so while her family and fellow people were stuck in “sort of a prison” under the communist rule.

“Going back - I went back in ’86 to play Federation Cup and that was the first time I went back since I left and it was very, very emotional experience in many ways, but the biggest, the most difficult part was leaving the country. I cried when I left, not when I got there because I realized all those people couldn’t leave. You know, I can get on a plane and leave because I have my American passport, but those people are stuck there – sort of a prison for 15 million people and I was really sad for them,” she recollected.

That year, the United States defeated three-time defending champions Czechoslovakia in the Federation Cup final. Martina Navratilova recalled that the natives were kind to her but the officials were indifferent and refused to present her with the trophy.

“They were very warm, and the common folk were incredible even when I was there (in 1986) but the officials, obviously, there was no recognition, in fact when US won to Czechoslovakia in the final, the officials left before the ceremony, because they didn’t want to give me the trophy,” she revealed.

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“My father did lose his job for a while” – Martina Navratilova on the ordeal faced by her family when she became a US Citizen

Martina Navratilova also revealed in the interview that changing her nationality had an impact on her family’s life in Czechoslovakia. The former player stated that although she was able to provide them financially with money earned in the US, her parents’ livelihood was disrupted and her sister had to make compromises with her career.

“I could send my family money, so actually, financially they were, you know, very well off in Czechoslovakia, the dollar went a long way but the difficult part was not knowing if there were going to be repercussions against my family, against my parents’ jobs. In fact, my father did lose his job for a while, although he didn’t have to be a janitor or anything. But he lost his post at the factory where he worked in the office,” she said.

“My sister couldn’t get into the school that she wanted to go to. She got kicked off the tennis team in Prague, had to play on a smaller team. You know, she became a dentist instead of an artist because she couldn’t get into the right school,” the American revealed.

In 2008, Martina Navratilova regained her citizenship in the Czech Republic while still holding American citizenship.