Martina Navratilova has hit back at football star Megan Rapinoe after the latter accused her of transphobia.

The former world No. 1 Navratilova has been criticised by Rapinoe for her views on trans women in sports. Speaking to Time, the former co-captain of the USA women's football team that she would welcome a trans woman onto the national squad.

She also called out Navratilova, among others such as ESPN anchor Sage Steele, for questioning the participation of trans women in competitive sports,

"When Martina or Sage or whoever are talking about this, people aren’t hearing it just in the context of elite sports. They’re saying, ‘The rest of my life, this is how I’m going to treat trans people."

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Navratilova's opinion on trans women in sports

The 18-time Grand Slam winner often uses her social media to talk about issues such as politics or racial equality, and recently she has shared her views regarding the ongoing debate around trans people in sports.

The 66-year-old, who has been married to wife Julia Lemigova since 2014, has shared her belief that only biological women should be allowed to compete in women's sports.

Navratilova praised the announcement from World Athletics in March that they wanted to have transgender women removed from international sporting competitions, calling it a "step in the right direction". Then, in an opinion piece for The Times, she wrote

"In the wake of World Athletics’ announcement, I think the best idea would be to have ‘biological female’ and ‘biological girls’ categories and then an ‘open category'."

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Rapinoe's criticism and Navratilova's response

Navratilova's views have come under criticism from many, and Rapinoe explained why she felt the tennis veteran was wrong in this instance,

"What you’re saying automatically in the argument... is you don’t believe these people are women. Therefore, they’re taking the other spot. I don’t feel that way."

She went on to add that lawmakers were using the trans athlete debate to weaponise women's sports by pretending to care about them,

"Oh, now we care about fairness? Now we care about women’s sports? That’s total bulls***. And show me all the trans people who are nefariously taking advantage of being trans in sports. It’s just not happening."

In a tweet, Navratilova responded to Rapinoe with one word, posting the CNN article containing Rapinoe's comments with "Yikes...", making it clear the two probably aren't going to agree on this issue anytime soon.

Martina Navratilova

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Yikes…

CNN

@CNN

US Women's National Team star Megan Rapinoe says US has ‘weaponized’ women’s sports against trans people and is ‘trying to legislate away people’s full humanity’ cnn.it/3rhGFAJ

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