Navratilova Blasts Newsom over Trans Athlete in California Girls Track Meet

Martina Navratilova called out California Gov. Gavin Newsom over a trans athlete set to compete in the upcoming girls high school track and field championships.

The athlete, representing Jurupa Valley High School, won multiple state finals last year and holds the top seed this year. Navratilova, a women's tennis legend, shared a Fox News Digital article about Olympic gold medalists Nancy Hogshead and Kaillie Humphries speaking against Newsom on the issue. "Right on Nancy!!! We are just built different!!!" Navratilova wrote in an X post.

She told one user Newsom could act quickly to protect girls sports. "Newsom could overturn this in a second. No excuse," she wrote. On Saturday, Navratilova reposted news of the athlete's top seeding. "Cheating… which at the moment the rules allow. Thanks for nothing [Gavin Newsom]," she added.

Hogshead, a three-time gold medalist and one-time silver medalist for the U.S. in swimming at the 1984 Summer Olympics, responded to a Newsom office statement. The source said, "The Governor has said discussions on this issue should be guided by fairness, dignity, and respect."

"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 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 told Fox News Digital.

She added, "The government never segregates racially and religiously, but we do segregate by sex because of biology, material reality. Girls and women rely on that formal sex segregation to have the possibility of equality in sport. Governor Newsom needs to include the girls competing in track in his own analysis. As a law professor, this is a big fail."

Humphries, a California taxpayer with three Olympic gold medals and six total in bobsled for the U.S. and Canada, said, "There is nothing fair about allowing boys to take opportunities from girls in sports. It’s just the left’s thinly veiled misogyny. 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."

A source in Newsom's office addressed a planned "Save Girls Sports" protest at a track playoff meet. "The Governor has said discussions on this issue should be guided by fairness, dignity, and respect. He rejects the right wing’s cynical attempt to weaponize this debate as an excuse to vilify individual kids. The Governor’s position is simple: stand with all kids and stand up to bullies," the source told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

"California is one of 22 states that have laws requiring students be permitted to participate in sex-segregated school sports consistent with their gender identity. California passed this law in 2013 (AB 1266) and it was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown."

After the Jurupa Valley athlete took first in triple jump and high jump and second in long jump, President Donald Trump's Department of Justice sued California agencies for Title IX violations last July. The administration followed with a targeted investigation of Jurupa Valley schools in January. The U.S. Department of Education named it among 18 institutions under review.