Martina Navratilova makes her feelings known on IOC President candidate Sebastian Coe amid 'radical' stance on transgender athletes

Martina Navratilova recently reacted to Sebastian Coe's pledge to take the International Olympic Committee (IOC) through a radical transformation if he becomes the sports governing body's president in March 2025. Coe has launched a manifesto, which contains his vision for the IOC going forward; one of innovation, protection of female sport and ensuring greater room for debate and discussion.

On Thursday, December 19, Cathy Devine, a former secretary of the British Philosophy of Sport Association, shared an article on X (formerly Twitter), titled 'Sebastian Coe pledges radical reform to become next IOC president' written by Sean Ingle. Devine also used the following excerpt from The Guardian article as the caption for her post:

"'Coe has long argued in his position as World Athletics president that gender cannot trump biology, and in his manifesto he states that he will advocate for “clear, ­science-based policies that safeguard the female category” if elected as IOC president.'"

Martina Navratilova, a former World No. 1 in both women's singles and doubles tennis, saw Devine's post and reacted to it with three thumbs-up and an applause emoji.

Navratilova herself holds firm views regarding the importance of protecting women's sports. The Czech-American tennis legend continues to voice her staunch opposition to transgender athletes competing against biological women. According to Navratilova, the inherent differences in biological constitutions of males and females give the former group a distinct physical advantage over the latter in sports.

The 18-time singles Grand Slam champion recently issued a clarification regarding her views on including transgender athletes in women's sports.

Martina Navratilova comes clean on why she doesn't support presence of transgender athletes in women's sports

Martina Navratilova (Source: Getty)

US Senator Dick Durbin was told by NCAA president Charlie Baker that less than ten of the the organization's 510,000 female athletes are transgender. Durbin later shared the interaction on X and captioned his post:

"510,000 NCAA athletes. Ten or fewer transgender NCAA athletes nationwide. Let’s focus on ways to actually improve women’s sports."

The US Senator's words did not go down well with Martina Navratilova, who quipped back, writing:

"It’s about sex, not race, not religion, not sexuality. But actual biological sex, which doesn’t not evolve."

Navratilova also chided Baker for his stance, which is seemingly in favor of transgender athletes competing in women's sports.

"Baker is pathetic. He knows he is wrong, hence the convoluted answers," Navratilova wrote in a separate post.

The Czech-American's post came as a reaction to Baker's discussion with Senator Josh Hawley, who criticized the former over his take on transgender athletes in women's sports.