Martina Navratilova responds to sex test | Sports News

Tennis great Martina Navratilova voiced her assist Monday for the Women’s Tennis Association’s newly introduced eligibility coverage, which can require all gamers to endure necessary genetic testing to compete on the ladies’s tour starting Tuesday.

Under the up to date coverage, gamers have to be screened for the SRY gene, a phase of DNA usually discovered on the Y chromosome that initiates male sex development. The test could be performed by way of cheek swab, blood pattern or saliva pattern, and tennis gamers will solely need to full it as soon as of their careers.

Players may even be required to signal documentation acknowledging that refusing the test may lead to disciplinary motion.

The coverage replaces the WTA’s earlier eligibility commonplace, launched in 2024, which had allowed transgender ladies to compete in the event that they maintained testosterone ranges under 2.5 nmol/L repeatedly for 2 years prior to competitors. The WTA famous there are no recognized transgender ladies at present competing on the tour.

Navratilova, long outspoken on the difficulty of transgender participation in ladies’s sports activities, praised the transfer on social media, calling it a “step in the right direction.”

She wrote: “I played no part in this particular policy, but am very happy that we at the WTA are clear that we are a women’s association and only women, as in females, can compete at the highest level of women’s tennis.”

In its announcement, the WTA emphasised the coverage was meant to be carried out fastidiously.

“The WTA’s women’s eligibility policy is designed to promote equal athletic opportunities in women’s professional tennis and maintain fair competition for all players participating in WTA tournaments,” the group mentioned, including that it acknowledged the difficulty as “sensitive and complex” and was “committed to treating all players with dignity and implementing the policy in a respectful and thoughtful way.”

The WTA additionally pressured that the coverage attracts a distinction between organic sex and gender identification, stating there was “no intent to disrespect or question the gender identity or the dignity of any person.”

The WTA’s transfer follows related insurance policies already adopted by World Athletics, which launched SRY gene testing for its competitions in 2025, and World Boxing, which accredited necessary sex testing that very same yr.

The International Olympic Committee has additionally confirmed it is going to implement gene testing forward of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, a coverage launched in March that aligned with an government order from President Donald Trump regarding eligibility requirements in sports activities.