Martina Navratilova and Riley Gaines hit back at Rapinoe’s comments about welcoming trans athletes into women’s sport
Martina Navratilova, the tennis great, has criticised Megan Rapinoe for claiming that she would “absolutely” welcome a transgender player on her team.
The row started when Navratilova retorted with a single-word tweet – “Yikes” – in response to Rapinoe saying that women’s sports is being “weaponised” in the complex and fierce debate about the participation of transgender athletes in women’s events.
Rapinoe has also been accused of virtue-signalling by American swimmer Riley Gaines, who said that the footballer is attempting to be inclusive when “it’s actually exclusive what she’s fighting for”.
In a cover interview with Time magazine, two-time World Cup winner Rapinoe, who announced earlier in July that she will retire from football at the end of 2023, said: “We as a country are trying to legislate away people’s full humanity.