"Stupidest idea" - Martina Navratilova criticizes Neil deGrasse Tyson's proposal to 'solve trans issues' in sports, echoes Piers Morgan's sentiments

Martina Navratilova has voiced her strong opposition to American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson's proposition for the inclusion of transgender athletes in sports. Navratilova joined British journalist Piers Morgan in pushing back against Tyson's controversial take.

Tyson recently appeared on Morgan's talk show, discussing the future of transgender athletes in sports. The 66-year-old suggested that instead of categorizing athletes based on sex, competitions could be organized based on hormone levels.

"What I see is, sports is on the frontier of how to handle this frontier of people who are trans. It's on the frontier of how to resolve that. I'm making this up now, imagine the future of sports does not distinguish sex, it sorts people by hormone ratios," Tyson said.

"I'm making this up, but imagine that. That would be interesting. You get a hormone test, you're in this range and then you compete against other people in the same range," he added.

Despite Piers Morgan dismissing the "ridiculous" suggestion, Tyson defended his stance and highlighted that sports like wrestling already used weight classes to ensure contests were fair and interesting.

"That's ridiculous. No, that is ridiculous. You're going to give every single person in sport a hormone test?," Morgan questioned.

"Hold on, I used to wrestle and in wrestling, there are people who weigh 125 pounds right on up to 240 pounds. They don't wrestle each other. The entire sport separates people so that the contest is interesting. The people of the same weight wrestle each other and that is the contest," Tyson replied.

However, Morgan countered by pointing out that even when separated by weight classes, wrestling was still divided by gender. The Brit further emphasized that if a female boxer were to fight against Floyd Mayweather in the same weight class, she would be "annihilated."

"If Floyd Mayweather fought a female woman boxer who was in the same weight division, he would annihilate her," he said.

Martina Navratilova, who is a vocal advocate against the inclusion of trans athletes in women's sports, echoed Piers Morgan's criticism. The 18-time Grand Slam champion denounced Neil deGrasse Tyson's proposal as the "stupidest" solution she had ever heard to address the issue.

"Neil proving once again he really should not be talking about solving trans issue in sports. His “ hormone class” division is the stupidest idea I have heard yet," Martina Navratilova posted on X.

Martina Navratilova: "Neil deGrasse Tyson has no idea what he is talking about when it comes to trans athletes"

Martina Navratilova (Source: Getty)

Martina Navratilova has also strongly criticized Neil deGrasse Tyson's suggestion of hormone-based categories as a solution to the debate surrounding transgender athletes in sports on a previous occasion.

The former World No. 1 condemned Tyson's remarks and asserted that he lacked any real understanding of the complexities involved in the issue.

"Neil actually has no idea what he is talking about when it comes to trans athletes…," Martina Navratilova posted.

Navratilova further labeled Tyson as "completely clueless" after the astrophysicist courted controversy by arguing that chromosomes alone were inadequate for determining gender as they existed on a spectrum.

"Okay, I forced myself to watch this whole thing and all I can say is Neil Tyson is completely clueless while trying to sound knowledgeable and reasonable," she commented.

Martina Navratilova has consistently spoken against allowing transgender athletes to compete in female sports, firmly expressing her belief that "male bodies were different from female bodies" and championing the need for sex-based categories.