Women’s tennis icon Martina Navratilova has taken on Gov. Gavin Newsom on the transgender athlete controversy heating up in California over the upcoming girls’ high school track and field championships.
A boy identifying as a girl is set to compete in the tournament this year, Outkick reported, after winning multiple state finals last year.
Under Newsom’s leadership, the state is allowing males to compete in girls’ sports.
Navratilova joined in the condemnation of the governor, cheering on two gold-medal-winning female Olympians, Nancy Hogshead and Kaillie Humphries, who spoke out against the governor Friday in an article on Outkick.
“Right on Nancy!!! We are just built different!!!” Navratilova wrote in an X, sharing the article as well.
In a response to the post, Navratilova argued to another user that Newsom had the power to protect girls’ sports in California.
“Newsom could overturn this in a second. No excuse,” Navratilova wrote.
In a later post on Saturday, Outkick reported, Navratilova re-shared news that the trans athlete, representing Jurupa Valley High School, is seeded first in the upcoming tournament.
“Cheating… which at the moment the rules allow. Thanks for nothing [Gavin Newsom],” Navratilova wrote.
Navratilova, like the Olympic swimmer Hogshead, has been a vocal advocate for protecting women’s sports despite supporting Democrats on other issues.
Regarding the upcoming track meet, Hogshead had responded to a statement from Newsom’s office stating, “The Governor has said discussions on this issue should be guided by fairness, dignity, and respect.”
The office cited a 2013 law that made it one of 22 states requiring students to be permitted to participate in “sex segregated” school sports consistent with their gender identity.
Hogshead, also a civil rights lawyer and lifelong Democrat, said in an X post:
Governor Newsom seems to exclude girls from his own standard of “fairness, dignity, and respect.” It is impossible to include a male — however they identify — into the girl’s sports and have a fair competition, respecting and dignifying the unique biology of females. Females aren’t weakened males; males and females are built from different molds, so different that it justifies formal, government-sanctioned sex segregation.
Hogshead won three gold medals in the 1984 summer Olympics.
Olympic bobsledder Humphries, who is a California resident and supporter of President Donald Trump, has criticized the California governor as well.
“Governor Newsom should be focusing on California hosting the Olympics which actually knows the difference between men and women and quit pushing his woke agenda which is out of the mainstream of the American public,” Humphries told Fox News Digital.
Humphries has won three Olympic gold medals in the bobsled for both the U.S. and Canada and in the 2026 winter games, at the age of 40, earned two bronze medals. She is the most decorated women’s bobsledder in Olympic history.
During an observation of Women’s History Month in the East Room of the White House, Humphries surprised President Trump with an Order of Ikkos Medal for his support of women’s sports.
The Order of Ikkos is a prestigious medallion awarded by U.S. Olympic and Paralympic medalists to a coach, mentor, or supporter who was instrumental in their success
“I want to recognize the support and impact you’ve had on women’s sports throughout the Olympic movement,” she told Trump. “Specifically standing up to keep biological women in women’s sports, to keep the field of play safe and allow for fair competition.”
The Department of Justice last July filed a lawsuit against California state agencies for alleged violations of Title IX, the federal law that prevents sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.